Property Description

Beautiful Earthship-style house on 1.7ha of land with a seasonal stream, plunge pool, water tank, and a big spring-fed pond. Everything is bespoke and hand-crafted. Totally off-grid. Ready to move in.

The first thing to say is that the structure is completely unlicensed and there are no other licensed buildings on the land. The owner has lived here like this for 10 years without any problems at all. If legality is a must for you, then unfortunately this is not the property for you.

The Earthship has a footprint of 10m by 5m. The tyre walls are up to 1.2m, and on top of that the rest of the structure is straw bale. All walls have been plastered with many layers of cob and sealed with lime wash. The only cement used in the entire structure is in the shower tray!

The entire south side of the Earthship has its trademark indoor greenhouse, floor-to-roof glass, which passively heats the structure in winter and houses a fruiting banana tree. In summer the interior of the Earthship is cooled passively with earth tubes.

Inside the Earthship is the living space with kitchen, plumbed water, and a small wood-burning stove. Upstairs is an ample mezzanine/bedroom with incredible sweeping views.

Built onto one side of the Earthship is a large strawbale/cob room which was a guest space for volunteers and friends. It also has a mezzanine level.

The toilet and shower room is accessed from outside. The shower has hot water from a gas boiler and the flushing toilet is hooked up to a vermicompost (compost worms) tank.

At the back of the Earthship, on the north side, is a huge roofed outdoor space. Perfect cool spot for hanging out in summer, or working undercover on rainy winter days.

Rainwater harvested from the roof feeds into the plunge pool (2,500 litres) which overflows into the water tank (45,000 litres). The water tank is plumbed into the house and toilet block.

The seasonal stream on the lower boundary has been partially and naturally dammed up to retain a lovely pool of water for bathing long into the hot summer months. A ram pump used to operate off this pool too and would be easy to reinstall.

An earth access road runs through the 1.7ha. Seldom traversed by anyone else. The part of the land with the Earthship is fully fenced and is roughly 1ha. The second, unfenced, area has the pond on it. The pond is licensed. It is 50m by 20m and is fed by two water veins. A spring-fed pond like this is called a charca in Portuguese.

There are 4 olive trees (one of them very old), 2 almonds, 1 white mulberry, 1 cherry, and a fig.

Electricity is supplied by a solar system consisting of 1 new lithium battery, 1 new 2000w inverter, and 2 x 240w panels.

The Earthship is located just outside of a small hamlet, with other farms bordering it. There are several families (both Portuguese and foreign) with children living within walking distance. It is a very peaceful setting with the stream on one boundary, and immersed in nature. Very quiet with gorgeous dark star-spangled sky at night.

The famous village of Monsanto is close by — views of the mountain from the land. The nearest towns are Idanha-a-Nova and Penamacor where there are shops (including supermarkets), a medical centre, restaurants, post office, and bus stands with connections to the nearest bigger cities: Castelo Branco and Fundão.

The Spanish border is a 20-minute drive away. Idanha-a-Nova has a big lake on the shores of which BOOM festival is held. There is another smaller lake closer by, in the village of Penha Garcia, where locals like to go swimming in summer.