Converted 1923 Schoolhouse on Rosguill Peninsula – 3-Bed Holiday Home with Mulroy Bay Views



Meevagh Schoolhouse, Raplagh, Downings, Ireland, Rosguill (Ireland)
3 Bedrooms · 1 Bathrooms · 110m² Floor area
€369,000
House
Parking
3 Bedrooms
1 Bathrooms
110m²
Garden
No pool
Not furnished
Description
Stand in the living room on a clear October morning and the light does something extraordinary. It comes in low off Mulroy Bay, catches the original timber windows, and throws long gold rectangles across the carpet while the open fireplace crackles with the last of the night's turf. That's the thing about a building that has stood since 1923—it knows how to hold a moment. Meevagh Schoolhouse in Raplagh, on the Rosguill Peninsula of northwest Donegal, is one of those rare Irish properties that stops people mid-sentence when they first see it. Three bedrooms, 110 square metres of genuine character, granite steps worn smooth by a century of feet, and views that keep pulling your eye back toward the water. At €369,000, it's an honest price for something that simply cannot be replicated.
The building was constructed as the local national school, and it shows—in the best possible way. Ceilings that feel almost cathedral-high by the standards of typical Irish residential architecture. Double-aspect rooms that catch light from two directions simultaneously. The kind of thick stone walls that keep rooms cool in July and hold heat in December. Somewhere along the way the schoolhouse was converted into a family home, and while it would benefit from a round of thoughtful modernisation—a new kitchen, updated bathroom fittings, fresh flooring in places—the bones are exceptional. The granite surround on the living room fireplace is original. The tongue-and-groove panelling on the ceilings has that particular warmth you simply cannot fake with modern materials. Bedroom 1 has ceilings so high that a seven-foot Christmas tree would barely graze them. Bedroom 3, up the carpeted staircase on the first floor, has triangular feature windows—almost Gothic in their drama—that frame Mulroy Bay like a painting you could stare at for years without getting bored.
Outside, granite pillars anchor hand-built stone walls that wrap the entire plot. There's a granite driveway, a paved patio, generous side and rear gardens rolling out to lawn, and an external boiler house housing the oil burner. It's a proper country property—the sort that comes with a sense of permanence. It doesn't look like a holiday cottage. It looks like somewhere that matters.
Raplagh sits on the Rosguill Peninsula, a finger of land that juts into the Atlantic between Mulroy Bay and Sheephaven Bay. The Atlantic Drive—one of the most genuinely wild coastal routes in Ireland—loops around the peninsula's edge, past sea cliffs and deserted coves and the kind of open-sky vistas that make you understand why people move to Donegal and never quite get around to leaving. The drive takes perhaps forty minutes if you don't stop, which you will, repeatedly. Downings village is just minutes away—a proper working seaside village with McGettigans pub, a handful of good restaurants serving locally caught haddock and Donegal Bay oysters, a SuperValu for the weekly shop, and a beach that on calm summer days turns a shade of turquoise you'd normally associate with the Mediterranean.
Two beaches matter most to people based around here. Tramore Strand, just outside Downings, is a long crescent of Atlantic-facing sand that catches proper swell—surfers from across Ireland make the drive up the N56 for it. Sheephaven Bay's calmer waters on the eastern side suit swimmers and kayakers. Carrigart, five minutes by car, adds another layer of everyday convenience: more shops, services, and the kind of unhurried village atmosphere that makes you check your phone less.
Then there's Rosapenna. The golf resort sits barely three kilometres from the schoolhouse, and it's not a modest operation—three championship links courses, including the Old Tom Morris and Sandy Hills layouts that regularly rank among Ireland's finest. Golf travelers from the US, Germany, and Scandinavia fly into Donegal Airport at Carrickfinn (roughly 35 minutes southwest) specifically for Rosapenna. For an owner of this property, it's practically on the doorstep.
Donegal in summer runs from late May through September, with long evenings that stretch past ten o'clock and the kind of soft Atlantic light that makes every walk feel slightly cinematic. The Donegal Bay Seafood Festival in August draws serious food people. The Earagail Arts Festival in July spills across the county, with events in Letterkenny (45 minutes south on the N56) and smaller satellite events dotted around the Gaeltacht communities of northwest Donegal, where Irish is still the daily language of the shops and pubs. Winter on the peninsula is a different experience entirely—quieter, rawer, but the coast in February has its own fierce appeal, and a schoolhouse with walls this thick and a fireplace this size makes even a storm feel like entertainment rather than an inconvenience.
For international buyers, Donegal has been quietly attracting attention for several years from buyers based in the Irish diaspora across the US, Canada, and Australia, as well as German and Dutch buyers drawn to the wild landscape and relatively accessible pricing compared to Kerry or west Cork. Ireland's property ownership laws are straightforward for EU and non-EU buyers alike—no restrictions on foreign nationals purchasing residential property. The proximity to Donegal Airport (Ryanair routes connect to Dublin year-round) and City of Derry Airport across the border in Northern Ireland (roughly 90 minutes by road) gives the area better international access than its remote feel might suggest. Dublin Airport is a three-hour drive south on the N15.
Given the property's unique architectural identity—a listed-era schoolhouse with original period features on an established plot—there is genuine short-term rental potential here for the periods an owner isn't in residence. Properties with this kind of character and story command premium nightly rates on the Rosguill Peninsula during the summer season, particularly from international visitors doing the Wild Atlantic Way who want somewhere with more soul than a generic holiday let.
Key features at a glance:
- Converted 1923 national schoolhouse with original period features throughout
- Three bedrooms with particularly high ceilings and generous room proportions
- Living/dining room with original granite fireplace surround and double bay views
- First-floor bedroom with triangular feature windows overlooking Mulroy Bay
- Double-aspect rooms in living areas and principal bedrooms
- Entrance vestibule with original red quarry tile flooring
- Tongue-and-groove ceiling panelling and decorative coving
- Original hardwood front door with granite steps
- Large enclosed garden with hand-built stone walls and granite pillars
- Granite driveway with parking and paved patio
- External boiler house with oil-fired central heating
- 3km to Rosapenna Golf Resort and its three championship courses
- Minutes from Tramore Strand and Sheephaven Bay beaches
- 35 minutes to Donegal Airport, 90 minutes to City of Derry Airport
- Scope for renovation and personalisation while retaining core character
This is a property for someone who understands that character takes a century to build and can't be bought in a showroom. The schoolhouse needs a buyer with vision—someone who'll update the kitchen, bring the bathroom fully into the present, and then stand back and let the building do what it's done since 1923: outlast everything else around it. If you're looking for a holiday home in Ireland with real historical identity, a second home on one of Europe's genuinely wild Atlantic coastlines, or a long-term investment in a peninsula that the rest of the world is only starting to discover, this is worth your serious attention. Contact Homestra today to arrange a viewing—properties like Meevagh Schoolhouse don't circle back onto the market.
Details
- Amount of bedrooms
- 3
- Size
- 110m²
- Price per m²
- €3,355
- Garden size
- 3210m²
- Has Garden
- Yes
- Has Parking
- Yes
- Has Basement
- No
- Condition
- good
- Amount of Bathrooms
- 1
- Has swimming pool
- No
- Property type
- House
- Energy label
Unknown
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