Okay, good afternoon, Sarah! What a lovely, crisp—well, actually warm—winter afternoon, isn’t it? I think it might be a bit too warm in my jacket, but it’s a beautiful December day. We have a great smallholding opportunity here. There’s just under a hectare of land—9,000 square meters and some change. It’s all fenced, though it’s terraced in layers, but essentially flat. There’s an abundant water source that runs all year round with sluice gates, so if one area doesn’t have enough water, it can be diverted to the rest of the property.
This property has four separate urban artigos, or plots, with four buildings. One of them is an old mill, though I wouldn’t call it habitable at the moment. It’s more of a feature, really. There are a lot of buildings here, not even counting the ruins. One of the ruins was a two-story home before, and there’s also an old chapel. Because these buildings are all built out of stone, I’d be very surprised if you couldn’t register them clearly. It’s like a mini-village! Do you want to look at the chapel now? Actually, let’s start by showing people where we are.
First, this is the property’s boundary. The limit runs behind us here. You can see the fence, which follows the property line down into a triangle and along this area. The fields down there, where the donkeys are grazing, don’t belong to this property, but everything on this side of the fence does. That’s the stream, and it’s worth mentioning that it marks the boundary. All the land between the stream and the road belongs to this property. The stream is fed by a natural water source on the other side of the road, at the far end of the property. This really is a perfect off-grid opportunity.
The ruins are fascinating, but the chapel and stonework are truly the standout features. So, where are we? We’re about 10 minutes from Figueiró dos Vinhos. What’s interesting here is the stone—it’s as close as you can get to Welsh slate. It’s beautiful,
much different from the sandstone or limestone typically found around here. The walls of the chapel are in quite good condition. It could absolutely be restored, and you’d be mad not to! The value of schist stone houses is remarkable. Look at the old gate post here—such a charming detail. Everything from here down is part of the property. The sheep likely aren’t included, but maybe a deal could be made. See the big green tree
in the middle? That marks the boundary—it’s just on the other side of the stream. Oh, and look at the stream! The sun is catching the water, making it glimmer. It’s hard to see with the light right now, but it’s beautiful. Now, to my naked eye, I’m not quite sure what the camera is picking up. Okay, well, come and have a look through here. This is the old chapel, isn’t it? You can see exactly where we are, and you get that beautiful double view. I mean, that is gorgeous and could be turned into something really special.
They actually rebuilt the building you can see on the other side of the road. Although it looks like a warehouse, it’s actually used for their festas (festivities). Oh, there—you can see the top of the chapel from here, can’t you? We’ll take a better shot of that later to show it properly. That building was the replacement for this chapel. It’s got a charm, like something Robin Hood would have hung out in. So, where are we heading next? Are
we going to the land, or are we...? No, let’s go around the land first. I think that makes sense with this lovely light. Then we can work our way back up. We’ll need to retrace our steps a little bit. What have we got here? A lot of olive trees and bamboo. That’s obviously where the water is. Let’s head down here.
Ah, well, here we are at one of the houses. Currently, the sheep live in it, so it doesn’t smell as fresh as you might like. But that’s okay—you can’t smell it! Some people like that countryside, “sheepy” kind of smell.
Not inside the house, though. No, not in your living room. Oh, look at the lambs—winter lambs! That’s how mild the weather is here. You get lambs in December! That brook we mentioned earlier runs all the way along the fence line. You can see it coming down here, I think. And here’s the man himself: the owner. The shepherd, the gardener,
the gate fixer—I’m sure he wears many hats. While we’re here, let’s show you the water system. Okay, let’s do that. I did tell the owner he might end up on camera. He said he didn’t want to be on the internet, but I guess we weren’t too clear about that! This is where the water comes into the land. You can see it starts here. It’s born out of the rock further up—a natural spring. Look at how massive it is here. I think we’ll just follow him. He knows where he’s leading us.
Yes, let’s go with him. That’s how it flows into the mill, but we’ll look at that on the way back. It’s great land, though. Right now, it feels a bit like Wales, doesn’t it? It really does—it has that vibe. And look, the land is so flat here. The stream runs all the way along. We’ll get to the end boundary soon. This part has been branched off artificially to power the mill. Many years ago, someone clearly designed this system with care. And here’s the stream again. Good dog!
It’s a bit marshy just here, but the shepherd’s guiding us well, isn’t he? You can actually see out there—I’m not going to go too far, but over by the road, just under it, you can see the tunnel. Yes, you can see where the water comes out of the tunnel. Exactly! And here’s the stream again. And here, running along the side of the land, is the stream. This
place is full of flowing water. There’s the bridge, with water running underneath. I don’t think we could have missed it, though Sarah wants me to re-show you the bridge. I’m not walking all the way there because I don’t have wellies on, but honestly, waders might be a better idea than wellies right now. So, the point is, if in the summer there isn’t as much water coming out of the mine, the owner can shut off part of the stream. This redirects the water down here, and he always has enough for the farm. He has permission to do this, so there’s always water for the land, which is key for a holding like this.
The water comes out of the rock on the other side of the road, and it must be incredibly clean. That’s what he’s trying to show us. Okay, let’s head back. Oh, now he’s showing off in his wellies. I should’ve brought mine for this! You can just see the houses up at the top. It gives you an idea of how big this place is. It’s huge! The house on the right is currently lived in, but just the upstairs. The underneath of all these buildings has great height and could easily be converted into habitable spaces. The house on the left, which fronts the road, is perfect for restoration. It’s massive, with high ceilings and excellent potential. If you wanted to
use it for commercial purposes, it’s already set up with three large doors opening onto the road. So, we’re talking about one, two, three houses, plus the mill, which is registered but only 20 M². The ground floor of one house has been structurally reinforced with concrete beams, so there’s a lot you can do with this. There’s so much potential here—it’s a veritable wonderland! Even the animals are friendly. The dog is so sweet. I was trying to get him
off the road earlier, but the owner just said, “Forget about it—he knows how to cross the road!” When you explained this to me before, I didn’t quite grasp the scale. It’s massive! This house here, where the sheep currently live, is a habitable property. The one behind it is a newer build with concrete construction, and it’s completely livable. The big house on the left is occupied upstairs, and the house furthest back, which fronts the road, is the one needing full renovation. So, there are four properties here in need of some renovation, plus the mine, the ruins, and the chapel, which are included in the sale but aren’t fully registered on the paperwork yet. Now, let’s look at the sluice system. This
is how the water flows into the mill. Let’s follow along and see. Here’s where the water comes out of the mill. Oh, wow! Look at this—it’s incredible. Let me adjust the light. Sorry, I’m realizing the mic isn’t picking this up clearly. Okay, here we are.
This is the wheel system. The water would have flowed under here to power the wheel. You could definitely do something with this water. If you have a year-round supply, you could turn it into electricity or another energy source. The beams on this side are solid, so the structure is still in great shape. Now, where to next? Sarah, where are we going? Let’s say hello to the geese. Oh, wait, I’m not sure we can get through that door.
Maybe we’ll check from the other side. And here we’ve got some lambs. There are four of them, but the owner is expecting more soon. It’s unusual to see them this early in the season, but spring is usually when the lambs arrive. Stone walls are everywhere here, adding to the charm. The owner mentioned he’s prepared for more lambing as spring gets underway.
In fairness, it's a little dark, and it smells of sheep. "I don't think I've been in here before. I don't think the sheep would let me in." "Time sheep would let you in? Oh my God, look at that! Sorry, I’m not going to say that—look at that!" "Obviously, the sheep aren’t bothered about the spiderwebs." "Well, they can’t reach them, can they?" "Nope. Wow, look at this building! That’s bedrock." "Yeah, I know for sure it’s built on bedrock."
"Wow, I’m sure of it now. Look at all the stonework and those steps." "Not quite sure what’s going on here. Come through here, and you see—" "You know, I thought that beam looked really solid from the other side." "Yeah, you want to come to this side. Look at that—that’s a huge tree!" "One day, someone’s going to knock back, and we’ll all faint." "It’s enormous, though, isn’t it? It actually goes around the corner."
"Yeah, it’s built back into the bedrock. It must have been an entire tree, wasn’t it?" "Look at the head height here—it’s not so great. Are you okay with the spiders?" "Spiders? No, they’re not my thing." "Look! There’s an old peg here. That must’ve been used to shut something. Fantastic!" "Okay, we won’t talk about that. Let’s get out of the sheep pen." On top of it is an old house that needs complete
renovation. It’s got loads of gear inside. "Sorry, um... we just had to cut. I had to change the battery on the camera. I got overexcited about the tractor—totally overexcited!" "Look at that tractor! Now she wants a tractor!" "Right, okay. I’ll get down, which I’ve been
moaning about for years and never allowed to have, and now she’s happily sitting on one, wishing she had one. But there we go." "Yeah, just show you this little tractor. Now she’s stuck on the tractor and can never leave!" "Probably wouldn’t go as fast as a dune buggy, anyway. Right, so I’m in the vehicle hut. We’ve just come back up from the water and are now walking back up the land after changing the batteries." "Now we’re going to and got hot on whatever day of December it was. We
changed—we both took our coats and jumpers off." "Yeah, so I think we should just start with the first one. Absolutely everyone that comes past here beeps because they all know him." This house—well, I can see they’re downstairs, so this is a renovation project. "Although you’ve got concrete beams there. Yeah, this is the one right on the road. However, look at the space you’ve got, and this is the perfect renovation to me." "This would make a fabulous little cottage, wouldn’t it? It’s not very little. Well, actually,
yeah, fabulous Stone House—that’s more like it." "Let me reiterate, you’ve got plenty of light because you can turn all the doors into windows." "Underneath, if you look at your beams, they’re good, and the height is well enough for you to probably pick up a board and see through, but we can as well. No, let’s leave it alone." "So, that would probably be the kitchen,
however you want to do it. The amazing height would make this an easy three-bedroom house." "I think we can go out here, can we? Right, hello, buddy cat. Let’s do that, then." "From here, you actually get a really good view of the size of that house. And then this one, obviously, I’ll write it all down, what for the sunshine." "Oh right, can you get this? I can, yeah, just get a general size. It’s absolutely huge. Just look at the height of the doors. Yeah, it tells you all you need to know—it was built on a big scale."
"Even the gates are massive, and yeah, party room—I mean, look at this—it’s gorgeous, isn’t it? Well, this is where he winds down with his mates." "This is the party room, okay. So, I’ll be leaving. There’s quite a little system going on up there." "This is where he hangs out with his mates. So this is underneath that said party room. Didn’t it, then? Hi, okay." One enormous house with a cat. Then, one of three rooms—they’re all the same. "We’ve just been in one party room. This is number two. Actually, if you go up, the colors on those stones are beautiful, absolutely stunning."
"It’s the height that gets me—it’s brilliant. It’s probably over two meters, isn’t it?" "Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s where I could see through. It’s got a lentil—you could put a door there." "Look at this stone—it’s red! Beautiful." "Okay, come on. Is it all those tools? Maybe we should just become farmers." "I absolutely hate gardening, though. It’s not really. I wouldn’t mind driving tractors." "Right, let’s go up there." "Okay, sure, for sure, if I let’s go
and do the main house. We can close it up. There’s the third one. Someone lives here at the moment." "There are rental clients in this house, but as you can see, it’s got a lovely balcony and nice chairs with nice views. We’ll do that in a second." So, we’re coming into the old house, which is completely rented out and habitable. "Large bathroom, yeah. Very large bathroom." "In there, we do have a lifted toilet seat. Oh no, Sarah’s absolutely mad—she
has run out and closed up immediately." "We’ve also got an attic. I think the kitchen is actually smaller than the bathroom at the moment." "Yeah, there’s obviously a fireplace behind there, and as I do or don’t get told off by saying stone, you could just remove this.
We’ve got a nice wide hallway that shows the size and width of these houses—clearly built by people with affluence." "We’ve got a bedroom to the side here." "Yeah, you do that." "Alright, got a nice big double bed. I mean, they’re not the biggest of rooms, but they’re comfy." "Yeah, yeah, there’s a good double bed in there. Watch your head." "Don’t bash your head in that one as well." "There’s an attic upstairs. This is what Sarah was asking about, but it’s just an attic. I mean, there’s no possibility of habitation."
"Oh, I know what I say—you could take all the ceilings out, go straight up to have a vaulted ceiling, and it would be absolutely amazing." "This would be a bigger, definitely bigger bedroom. The fact is, you’ve got somewhere if you want to come and realize all of these buildings and everything else." "I’m doing this because I opened the curtains,
so now I have to close them again. I made the bed for whoever is sleeping in here, so he’s going to come back and wonder if he’ll notice mommy bear. Sorry, I don’t know—I can’t get back out." "Seriously. Don’t humiliate me. There’s obviously some gaming going on here. Right,
there we go—a gaming chair." "So, we have a pellet burner there, behind you. This is a really good house. I’m going to follow behind you and turn the lights off, as I opened all the curtains before." "Maybe you’ll get that balcony now—what
a wonderful place. The sun’s right in my eyes at the moment, but I can assure you this is a really pleasant place to come to drink a cup of tea in the morning—or if you prefer something stronger, that’s nice too." "Nice wide space so you could put a table out here and take advantage of opportunities." "Sarah’s having trouble with the high-tech
door. I’m going to leave him with that—it’s probably a good idea." "So this one with this fence here went underneath, but it’s obviously a completely separate entity. They’ve got a lovely-looking dog, but he’s in there because he doesn’t like strangers." "Well, maybe there’s one room for a change. We won’t go in there because he doesn’t want to—there’s a reason for that. Yeah, obviously, underneath the
house again, a mixture of concrete and wooden floors, with big concrete beams. That’s the kitchen and bathroom." "Although, I feel like I’m the wrong way around, but that’s what he told me. That’s definitely plumbing. Look at those walls—they’re concrete. Well, yeah, it’s solid." "There must be another one as well. Yeah, there is—on the other side of this wall here. There’s another one,
the same as this. I haven’t got a key for it." "We’re talking about an easy three-bedroom house again, same as the first one." "Yeah, yeah, that’s bigger. It’s a little bit cold here, though, with it being December and semi-in-ground." "You’ve got a nice private courtyard, but we can’t get in there—it’s locked. It’s the same." "I'm going to shut this one now and then shut that gate, and he can let the nice-looking dog out that might eat me." "Well, that’s probably all."
That’s okay, we’ll just go down here. "I don’t think it’s slippy—I’m just a bit scared." Okay, right, so first of all, hello. I'm about to get attacked by geese. I just know it. Yes, chickens and geese. Yeah, we know, mate, you're not happy about it, and we won’t be here for very long. There we are, chickens and geese living in perfect harmony. What’s on the other side? I'm not going around there. Well, there's more. Okay, so this is very scary. Yeah,
very scary. Spiders and geese, apparently. Right, okay. Tigers and lions and things—little tiny spiders. So that’s right, I haven't been in there yet. He's looking at it. Oh, yeah. Okay, it just keeps going. This house doesn’t stop. We can do that one first. Let’s go through. Yeah, yeah, I’ll go in. Well, this one is rather dark. It is rather dark,
and I’m just testing the floor—it’s concrete, it’s big, it’s stone. Where does this go? Oh, why am I doing that? We’re on top of the sheep house. Yeah, which was the other really dark place underneath. Okay, now he’s got that door open for us, but again, it’s all stone, isn’t it? Look at the color of that. Look at the color—gorgeous. Yeah, it’s just beautiful. This could be... Okay, come on. Right, this has been a really touristy area, hasn’t it? It is, with all the river beaches. I think you might need to watch where you’re putting your feet,
babe. I’ll TR on that case of finding out that you’re in a sheep’s house. It’s another big room, isn’t it? Well, this is obviously a very old house. Yeah, there were three bedrooms, weren’t there? One, two, three. I mean, this is very traditional Portuguese—tiny little rooms, cold the way you keep warm. Oh, I can see a window. We’ve got two little
window seats here. Yeah, but I’d say okay, there’s one crack there, but generally speaking, solid build, roof, everything. Again, it’s all stone. This one obviously needs complete renovating, but it could be another lovely house. Right, with this, got the veranda. Don’t
just stand on it. I just ran out of batteries. I’ve been doing this just as long as you. Right, right, and here we have, I think, yet another veranda. I think you’re pointing the camera at a piece. I know I am indeed. B H, let’s have a look at this sheep. Hi, sheep! There we go. I’m going to spin us around—there’s the courtyard. Yeah, that’s where we were—free sheeping. Okay, that’s the entrance to the kitchen.
Need to say goodbye here. Is there more? Is there more? Another house? Good Lord, it just doesn’t stop, does it? Sarah, sorry. Right, so there are the sheep houses, as I’m calling them. No, what you said—sorry, sheep houses. Geese houses. I’m walking a bit stupidly—it’s because I twisted my ankle, I don’t want to do it again. Hello, pretty cat! Right, so now we have another completely habitable house—smaller. Up your feet,
can I call this one a cottage? Call it Fred if you want. We have got lights. Okay, so we do have another. It’s not that bad. No, it’s not that bad. You can tell. Another toilet seat up. Oh gosh, men. She just didn’t do her due diligence. Normally Sarah runs around everywhere wildly, shutting toilet seats wherever she goes. My lifetime chant—trank, trank, trank—that’s all you ever hear. I haven’t been here today, so… Right, that looks out onto a roof. A roof, yeah. More light could come in—not the most exciting views,
but the reality is we’ve got another completely habitable cottage. The floor's good, the windows good, and it needs heating. I mean, yeah, most places do. It has got—oh, toilet seat down! What? Kitchen? Yeah, fireplace, decent-sized kitchen/diner actually. It’s more of a kitchen table, really, than a kitchen dining room. But it is a kitchen/diner. You’ve got a lounge there and two bedrooms, or one. Yeah, totally.
Hang on. Kitchen/diner, bathroom, lounge, bedroom. Yeah, it could be two bedrooms differently, but let’s call it a one-bedroom. Another one-bedroom, spacious one-bedroom cottage. You’re blinding me. Yeah, that’s just my actual thing, you know that. I do it. I’m quite dazzling. She’s not listening. Of course I’m not. No, I’m not. Sorry. Let’s go this way just
for the fun of it. Okay, together, right into the sun. We’ve got two minutes and 30 seconds. Right, 30 seconds—me and the cat. So summing this up—well, it’s enormous and you have huge potential here for family, community, business, rentals. We are 10 minutes from Figueira da Foz and 10 minutes from Praia Grande—both tourist areas. River beaches everywhere, off-grid,
agro-farming—absolutely perfect if you want to use the water for electricity or get it working. But if you don’t need to, there’s electricity right there. So, this is, I reckon, probably going to go out on New Year’s Day. This will be our New Year’s Day release. Might be earlier than that, yes, but we’re not allowed to do it earlier than that. Welcome to 2025! Bye, thank you. Please do like and subscribe
2025-01-11 20:24