A renovated stone cottage sits in the shadow of the resting place of a Celtic warrior goddess

Asking price: €525,000

Agent: DNG Flanagan Ford (071) 915 9222​

​A new €4m public square that opened in Sligo town this month was named after the Celtic goddess Queen Maeve.

The warrior goddess was one of the daughters of the King of Tara and once ruled the province of Connacht. While she is typically portrayed as a strong warrior-like feminist, to be revered, she had a dark side too.

Her antics included murdering her pregnant sister Eithne to marry Ailill mac Máta in order to take over Connacht, while she refused to let any other king rule at Tara unless they slept with her first.

Most believe she’s buried standing up in a cairn facing towards Ulster on top of Knocknarea. It’s part of the view at a three-bedroom stone cottage at Streamstown, Ballisodare, Co Sligo.

“Knocknarea is approximately 15 minutes’ drive from our house,” says Peter McDonnell, a garda who comes from Knocknarea. “It’s a stunningly beautiful area.”

Peter and his wife Lorraine built the house in 2006. In 2017, they refurbished the interior and partially reconfigured the 2,078 sq ft home. “We wanted to update it and because we’d lived in the house, knew exactly what to change,” says Lorraine, who comes from Strandhill and owns Kirby Care, a provider of homecare for the elderly.

“We were a little ahead of the curve in terms of the design. For example, the panelling in the hallway — nobody had panelling at the time, but I had it in my head that I wanted it.”

A glazed doorway with a dramatic gothic arch surround opens to an expansive hallway at the front. Here, there’s an enormous marble bust of WB Yeats on a sideboard, a nod to the fact this is Yeats’ country, and a suit of armour that Lorraine’s sister found.

“My sister, who lives in the UK, rang me one day and said ‘do you want a suit of armour?’. I said yes, but then I had to get it over here. I enrolled the help of a friend, who works as a hauler, and he kindly brought it for me.”

The kitchen/sunroom at the back of the house has an apex double-height roof. Here, the country-style cream cabinets were replaced with Shaker-style kitchen units by Winterwood of Sligo town.

All of the worktops are marble and made by McMonagle’s in Donegal. There’s a neat little island in the centre, which has overhanging lamps from Derry Taheny Electric.

The kitchen leads to the sunroom with views of the Ox Mountains in the distance, and faces south.

“In the first build, we sectioned off the sunroom, but we found we never used it, so we did away with the doors,” says Lorraine. “We also added a wood-burning stove. We use it all the time now. It’s very cosy in the winter.”

The flooring in the house is parquet and there’s underfloor heating in all of the rooms except for the bedrooms.

In its first incarnation, the house had four bedrooms, but one was turned into a dining room.

The dresser here comes from the original kitchen. It was upcycled by painting it Hick’s Blue from the Little Greene range to match the rest of the room.

There’s also an office, which has shelving, filled with books on a wall and surrounds the door, another of Lorraine’s creative ideas.

Her own sketches fill a wall in the sitting room and also feature in the hallway. She has an eye for quirky artefacts. The papier-mâché half dummy, covered in cartoons and attached to the wall in the hall, is one such find.

“I found it in a charity shop in the UK and brought it home in my suitcase.”

There are two tailor’s dummies, a free-standing one in the master bedroom, given to Lorraine by a friend, and half a dummy in another bedroom which cost €15 in a charity shop.

Two double bedrooms come with en suite bathrooms and the other is in use as a dressing room, but could be changed back.

“I always wanted a dressing room, so we had it fitted out when renovating the house,” says Lorraine. “In particular, I asked the builder to install a TV point so I could watch breakfast TV whilst doing my make-up in the morning.”

There’s a patio at the back of the house, which previously had decking, but now has porcelain black and white tiles. The garden has been landscaped and tended to over the years by Peter.

He points out that the roof space of the house could be converted into two bedrooms and a bathroom. “We’ve been quoted €40,000 for the work,” he says.

“Because the hall is so big, it would still allow space for a stairs and you could still have an entrance. The views upstairs are gorgeous, as you can see the sea front.”

You can walk to the sea in two minutes from the property. Ballisodare is a heritage area with a village and a bird sanctuary. It’s also 7km from Sligo town.

The couple plan to downsize to somewhere in the village and Lorraine is looking forward to getting stuck into a new project.

“So many people have asked why we’re selling the house, given the amount of work and love we’ve put into it, but we plan to do it all over again on a smaller scale.”

“We’re going to be sad to leave, but change can also be good,” adds Peter.

“We will, however, especially miss the area and being so close to the sea, and, of course, Knocknarea. “It’s such a beautiful area and the views are just gorgeous.”

DNG Flanagan Ford seeks €525,000.