Stones & Stars, a Year in West Cork by Denise Hall (1994)

 

After living in the USA for 10 years journalist Denise Hall moved back to her native Ireland. She found a home in Barley Cottage, near the coastal village of  Glengarrif, West Cork. There was no electricity or running water when she moved in, and she is slowly doing up the cottage, hoping to install a bathroom one day. She has a half acre of land, where she keeps her horse Kitty.

She is struggling to earn a living when one day she meets a local auctioneer who tells her: 'What you should do is buy Lickeen". Denis knows all about Lickeen: '70 acres of land plus a derelict farmhouse, perched halfway up a mountain, the track to it undriveable". At Christmas Denise's daughter Amy, her boyfriend Bryn and family friend Katherine visit and they take a walk to Lickeen. 'To this day my daughter insists it was me who first mentioned buying the place, but I still find that hard to believe. Anyway, once the idea was released into the crisp winter's air, it just refused to go away.'

Soon after Denise becomes the owner and is hit by the realisation of what she has taken on: 'What in God's name was I doing here?. One woman and a hatchet against this untamed wilderness? And while I was indulging in a bit of belated self-flagellation I might as well admit that my new home was unliveable in, even by my fairly flexible standards.'

She discovers that she can get a grant for installing electricity, a condition being that she has livestock. One cow will do. Enter aptly named Electra. Denise starts work on the house and has a builder restore chimney stack and the roof. He also installs a new window, letting much needed light into the kitchen. Work starts on the 'undriveable track' and instead of carrying everything up, she is at last able to drive to Lickeen. 

To make some money she starts writing about her experiences. Her obituary states that this became the column 'Lickeen Letters". Her children come to help, and during the last months of the year Denise struggles to get everything finished before Christmas, when she has to move out of her cottage. Electricity is installed, the kitchen finished and a bathroom installed, and at last Denise had her dream come true:  she can take long hot baths!

After Christmas she still has a hectic time, what with cow Electra and dog Sam giving birth, and having to face all the bills coming in.The story ends on a positive note when a publisher agrees to publish Denise's book.  'I realized that this was only the beginning. Lickeen - this frustrating, infuriating, exhilirating, irresistable place - had not finished with me yet. But that's another story for another day ...' However, as far as I know, she never published another book.

Denise Hall died in 2015, when she was 69. Her obituary states she was living at Lickeen West, Glengarrif at the time of her death. I assume this is the property described in the book.