‘I wanted to change my life’: How one businesswoman transformed a old Cork cottage into a B&B

Life in the lush, green valley near Mitchelstown, Co Cork, is light years away from the cut and thrust of the corporate world in sprawling cities across the globe. But it is this contrast, which propelled Ciara O’Brien to hang up her briefcase and return to the area where she grew up to purchase an old cottage.
Located in rolling countryside, just a few minutes from Mitchelstown, and with views of the Galtee Mountains, the property, which is “rural without being remote”, was the perfect find for the businesswoman, particularly as she had tried and failed twice to purchase other houses in the area.
Built in the mid-1800s, in its original guise the traditional farmhouse comprised a two-up/two-down layout with a multipurpose kitchen/living room along with what would have been seen as the “good room”, and two bedrooms upstairs.
The 1970s saw an extension added which brought a new kitchen, bathroom and two other bedrooms – and, upon viewing it in 2021, O’Brien could see the potential to build a home for herself in one of the accompanying outbuildings, while transforming the house itself into a bed & breakfast.
“The site came with an acre of land and lots of sheds and outbuildings, so I had one of the lean-to sheds knocked out in order to build the studio apartment I now live in,” she says. “Having grown up nearby, I remembered the house from when I was a child going to school – it used to be covered in ivy and had a funny monkey puzzle tree in the front yard. So it was a real stand-out house, built by the local landowning Kingston family for one of their farmers.
“It was in reasonable condition when I bought it – thankfully the site is very dry – but it had a G Ber rating, so it had to be gutted and retrofitted. I wanted to bring out the magic of the old bones of the house, so the crumbling cement render, both inside and out, was stripped back, the old stone walls were repointed, and the authentic lime render was replaced.
“Everything was insulated – floor, ceiling, rafters and walls – as I really wanted to make it energy-efficient, so also added solar panels and a heat pump. There is a concrete floor and underfloor heating throughout the ground floor, and it all works well together.”
The Cork woman says while the floor plan and layout of the house remain true to the original, everything has been renovated and or exposed. Led by H&E Construction Services, with rendering and appointing done by local men Colan Howard and David Casey, the work cost about €350,000. While she didn’t have much of a hand in the physical renovation, along with interior designer Catherine O’Flynn, she was instrumental to the decorative work.
“I didn’t do too much inside until it came to the decoration, and fixtures and fittings,” she says. “But while the builders were busy inside, my Dad and I were busy outside getting the landscaping organised, because I really wanted the entrance to be just as striking as the house itself. Then with regard to the interiors, I did a lot of the research myself to find the styles and colour palettes which I was drawn to. I liked a calming sage green with cute Pooky lighting for the farmhouse, while I wanted a more contemporary, almost industrial look for my own studio apartment.
This look for the apartment included steel doors, setting plaster on the walls, wooden windows and a birch ply kitchen.
“Catherine helped me to get consistency through the design and not to throw too many different things at it – it can be so tempting to pick up more and more ideas from Instagram and Pinterest, and lose the feeling you’re trying to create. She really encouraged me to pare back and be consistent in my choices, which has worked so well to create a flow through the property,” O’Brien says.
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Turning an old house into a modern venue fit for guests was no mean feat, but, aside from a few minor issues, the transformation was a success.
“Our biggest issue was an area of roofing which required a corrugate finish,” says O’Brien. “The first product which was selected didn’t perform as expected and had to be replaced at a significant cost, which delayed the project by about two months and impacted the budget by over 5 per cent.
“In hindsight, I’ve learned that the spec of a product on paper is never sufficient – you really have to go out and see it operating, especially when your building contractor has not used it before either.”
But despite these minor hiccups, three years after purchasing the house and starting the project, the work is now finished, and Barnahown B&B opened its doors to the public during the summer and has got off to a flying start.
“Mitchelstown is quite a vibrant town with lots of people passing through for both leisure/tourism and business, and we have a really innovative food and beverage scene and close proximity to outdoor gems like the Galtee Mountains, Glengarra Woodlands and Mitchelstown Cave,” says the “executive host”, who prides herself on making “a bespoke fuss of each guest, human and canine”.
“The B&B opened in mid-July 2024 and it has been quite hectic ever since, with most nights selling out,” she says. Part of this busyness was filming for the upcoming series of At Your Service on RTÉ One – O’Brien’s episode will be shown on October 6th.
How did O’Brien get on with the show’s ebullient presenters, the Brennan brothers?
“Working with John and Francis Brennan was an excellent experience. They gave me great advice on my own operations around room lay-out, breakfast offerings and pricing, while also organising access for me to meet businesses I really admire in the sustainable operations space, such as Hotel Doolin.”
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Clearly enjoying her new role running a guest house in the countryside, she is aware that it is quite a change from her previous life. But, having spent two decades working in multinational companies across the US, UK, Europe and Asia, including time with PepsiCo, Unilever and Google, while living in London, Rotterdam and Singapore, she is more than happy with this new incarnation.
“I had come to a point where I was tired of long days at a desk and sitting on Zoom calls, so I wanted to change my life: move more, spend more time outside, invest my time, expertise and resources in my local community,” says O’Brien.
“I also wanted to buy my own house where I could welcome family and friends, but, as a single person, and with a strong interest in sustainability, I didn’t feel right leaving so much of it idle for long periods of time – and this is where the idea of the B&B was born.
“If I have people visiting I can close it down, although realistically that might be 20-30 days a year, while the rest of the time I can provide badly needed visitor accommodation locally and create an income for myself, which enables me to spend more time in nature and support lots of local food businesses and artists whose work is showcased in the property.”
And if she was to do it all again?
“The only thing I’d do differently is try not to worry so much,” she says, adding that it’s “quite scary” giving up a secure job for a self-employed life, and she had fretted and “still” frets about making sure the B&B is always busy.
“I hope that once I’ve got a year or two under my belt and get to grips with understanding seasonality, I’ll be able to relax into it and enjoy it fully. This is definitely the right lifestyle for me, it’s extremely fun and fulfilling, and I see lots more possibilities ahead for this lovely house.”