Off-grid cottage in the heart of Galicia
Galicia, Northwest Spain, Lugo Province
• 1 Living Room • 2 Bedrooms • 1 Bathroom • Large garden • Ample parking
Offers in the region of
€120,000
The property is a detached stone cottage in a small hamlet of four houses, set in open countryside. Two are empty and the third, has recently been refurbished and modernised as a family weekend house. The closest permanent neighbour is 300m along the road.
Helen and I bought the property as a derelict shell, in 2012 and have spent the last 12 years restoring the cottage. The restoration work is ongoing, but the cottage is perfectly liveable in. It does require some work to complete, and for someone else to make it theirs, so it is being sold as an ongoing project.
Details about the cottage
The property is a detached cottage with 1946 m2 of land, in a small traditional Galician hamlet of four houses. It is in a remote but not isolated rural area, surrounded by fields which are farmed throughout the year for grass and maize, (the area supports a number of small family dairy farms and farm cooperatives). Part of the cottage is stone and is around 100 years old, the other part (which comprises the kitchen and dining room/ spare bedroom), is rendered brick which was added sometime in the 1990’s.
Two of the other houses in the hamlet are empty and the third, has recently been refurbished and modernised as a family weekend house which is only used 3 or 4 times a year. The closest permanent neighbour is 300m along the road.
We bought the property in 2012 as an abandoned and empty shell and have spent the last 11 years restoring and refurbishing the cottage and garden with the aim of creating an off grid, self sufficient and sustainable homestead. The work is almost completed, and the cottage is perfectly liveable in, but due to family commitments in the UK we are now selling the property as an ongoing project, needing completion and as an opportunity for new owners to make their mark on it.
The cottage has 5 ground floor rooms, 4 of which are completed.
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Living room (8m2) with large wood burning stove, small north and south facing windows.
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Fitted kitchen (13.5m2), with washing machine and butane gas cooker.
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Bedroom (or dining room 10m2), with two cupboards (one of which houses the gas water heater).
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Bathroom with shower (2.5m2) and ‘Separett’ composting toilet system.
There is also the old animal pen area (17.5m2) which has access to the back garden and which requires complete refurbishment.
Upstairs there are 2 rooms, 1 of which has been completed.
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The small 'study' (8m2), this is directly above the living room and is currently being used as a music room but could be used as a cosy single bedroom.
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A larger room of 17.5m2 with north and south facing windows which needs completion and would make a lovely master bedroom.
The property has it's own water supply from a 42m deep borehole at the front of the cottage. This feeds to a cistern within the house. This is a deep borehole, and we have never had any water supply problems even during the longest and hottest summers. The cottage was completely reroofed in 2013, and all the windows are modern double glazed units.
The power supply is from a 12v solar system for all (LED) lights and sockets. We have 6 solar panels on the south facing roof which feed into a battery bank of four 250wh Trojan Batteries through 2 ‘Outback’ charge controllers. We have found that this system provides plenty of power even during the winter months.
We do have a Honda petrol generator, which is currently used for power tools, the washing machine and the pump for the well.
We are currently building a small bio gas digester, to produce methane gas from garden waste and kitchen scraps. This is an experimental prototype system to test the technology, and will be used to produce a little gas for cooking.
The system could easily be scaled up and could be used to produce gas for heating water and potentially to run the generator.
We have been advised by the local council that the house footprint, (currently 79m2), could be enlarged by 50% under current legislation.
If you have a Gmail account, you can access some more videos of the property on YouTube by contacting us (referencing your Gmail address). You will receive some links to the Off Grid Galica channel which has videos of the cottage interior.
The videos are available by invitation only and we need a Gmail address to satisfy the YouTube privacy protocols. Your Gmail address will not be used for any other purpose other than to allow your access to the links.
The Garden(s)
There are effectively two gardens. The smaller plot which was included when we originally bought the cottage, and the land which we bought at the back (south) of the cottage in 2018.
The smaller original garden (207 m2), lies to the east end of the cottage and borders the road to the north, it is fenced all around and is accessed from the cottage through the kitchen, or from the road.
When we bought the cottage, we planted an apple tree at one end, which has done really well and always produces a good crop, there is a large Elder by the gate, from which we harvest flowers and berries.
At the present we have raspberries, a salad bed, herbs, broccoli, and flowers in this area.
The larger garden (1739 m2), which is south facing, was known locally as ‘prado verde’ or green field, meaning that even in the heat of summer there was always enough groundwater and fertility to support green grazing for the cattle.
The soil here is a rich deep, sandy loam. When digging to put in the septic tank we were impressed with it’s depth of over a metre and moisture content.
We have found that irrigation needs to be minimal in this area, only really necessary for establishing young plants if the weather suddenly becomes dry.
Root vegetables including potatoes, squash, pumpkins and brassicas yield really well without watering. This garden has been organic for the last 6 years and the original smaller garden, for 12 years.
In this garden we have the old caravan that we came to Galicia in originally from Scotland, (which has been since used as an 'office/workspace' for Helen's English teaching work, and occasionally for friends to stay over if they want to feel like they are camping), the 7m by 2m polytunnel, a pond with goldfish and a seating area, (the pond is an amazing attraction for dragon flies and damsel flies), and also the 'Chicken Tower', which was constructed from the remains of a dumped water tank that supplied our local village. It has an enclosed chicken run attached, which also provides access to to the septic tank which is part of the 'grey water' drainage system.
There is also the small seating area shaded in summer by grape vines with a tiny fire pit area that is perfect for cosy and intimate evenings shared with friends.
Design strategy.
The layout of the plot has been designed using permaculture principles.
The design started with the planting of useful native trees along the east and west boundaries to form a high hedge and provide some small firewood, foraging and a windbreak.
More fruit trees and smaller soft fruit bushes were planted on the garden side of the hedge as a double hedge or linear forest garden.
Some birch were planted in the centre of the plot to provide shade. All these trees we grew from local seed.
Herbacus layer plants have been introduced; comfrey, types of mint and lemon balm and a biodiverse mixture of native grasses and flowers have been encouraged to benefit local wildlife.
A few areas were left wild at the edges of the plot and the central part allocated for the vegetable garden and polytunnel.
These links will take you to .pdfs showing plans of the garden..
Get in Touch
If you like what you see, and you'd like to continue with this project, please contact us.
We are happy to answer any questions, and we can send you more photos and links to some videos.
Helen and Paul