Grenaby Estates

Grenaby Estates is a group of thick stone farm buildings at Grenaby Mooar, standing in open country outside Ballasalla. This is one self-contained apartment within them, for two.

You arrive into a paved courtyard between stone elevations, cars pulled in against the wall, with a wrought-iron stair climbing the outside to a dark timber door. On the lawn beyond, an outsized chess set is laid out on a full-size board.

Under the barn trusses

The living space runs open beneath a pitched ceiling with the roof trusses left exposed and picked out by spotlights. Wide oak boards underfoot, a sofa and a leather armchair on a cowhide rug, a television, and a solid oak table with chairs at the dining end. The kitchen is fitted along one wall in cream units over stone tiles, with an oven, a hob, a coffee machine, a dishwasher and a washing machine, so you can cook properly rather than reheat. A high chair can be put out.

The bedroom and the bath

One extra-large double, made up in white against a dark headboard, a lamp either side and towels folded at the foot. Windows look into trees and fields. The bathroom has a full bath with a shower over it, a vanity and a mirrored cabinet.

The decking and the walled terrace

Your own door opens onto a timber deck with a bistro table, iron chairs and pots of lavender. Past it the terrace looks over post-and-rail paddocks: a stone wall to lean on, a pergola, picnic benches on the grass and tables on the paving.

Ballasalla, and Castletown beyond it

Ballasalla is a village, and the nearest town of any size is Castletown, the island’s old capital, where Castle Rushen stands over the harbour, and the southern beaches at Port Erin and Fleshwick lie further round the coast.

A base for

Couples after quiet countryside and a real kitchen, close to the airport and the whole southern end of the island.