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Le Creuset pans and artistic touches at these super holiday homes overlooking Barr Hall bay - plus shared garden, laundry and BBQs

If you drive along this shore when the tide is out you can watch the grey seals basking on the rocks like fat lazy bananas. It's a magical area, the rolling hills on one side of the water, the dark Mournes rising above the mist on the other, mostly owned by the National Trust. And Barr Hall Barns fit perfectly: stone and brick for the Barn and Cottage, limewash for the haybarn Apartment with its floor-to-ceiling window and wow-provoking interior. The gracious, talented owners have converted these once tumbledown outhouses brilliantly and Maureen's creative flair and needlework skills are obvious: vibrant colours, a set of Russian dolls here, a quilt hanging over an internal balcony there. Quality counts too: open-plan kitchens with oil-fired Esse stoves, Le Creuset pots and sharp knives; soft-cushioned sitting areas warmed by cast-iron gas fires. Light pours in through well-placed windows onto original timbers and stonework, pale walls and good furniture. It is all clean-cut, vivid and welcoming, the communal garden, laundry and barbecues making the ideal final flourish.