Late afternoon on the roof. The pergola throws striped shade across the terracotta, someone is already in the plunge pool, the barbecue is warming up and the hills roll away green in every direction until they meet the haze of the coast. Down in the street, the village has gone quiet for the evening.

This is a fully renovated townhouse in Cumeada, on the edge of São Bartolomeu de Messines in the municipality of Silves. Two bedrooms and an attic room in the main house, an independent studio on the ground floor with its own entrance, and a roof terrace that works as a second living room for most of the year.

Inside the house

The kitchen and living space sit under an exposed timber beam ceiling, with terracotta tiles underfoot that stay cool through August. Built-in masonry shelving runs along the walls, the worktops are white with black fittings, and there is room for a proper dining table and a reading corner beside the stairs. A separate laundry room keeps the washer and dryer out of sight.

The bedrooms are calm and simple: whitewashed walls, original wooden doors, open built-in wardrobes and windows that look out over the countryside. Each bedroom has its own bathroom. Up under the roof, the attic room with its sloping timber beams is currently set up as a lounge, with its own shower room, so it works just as well as a third bedroom when guests come to stay.

The roof terrace

This is the part of the house you will live on. A large terracotta terrace under a reed pergola, with a fully equipped stainless steel outdoor kitchen and barbecue, a long dining table, an outdoor lounge, hanging hammock chairs, string lights for the evenings and a plunge pool to cool off in. All around it, open countryside and green hills, with the light changing over them through the day.

The studio

On the ground floor, an independent studio with its own street entrance, a kitchenette and a shower room. Visiting family, a home office, or a potential source of rental income (subject to licensing).

The location

Cumeada is a small village just outside São Bartolomeu de Messines, in the green interior of the Algarve, where life runs at a slower pace and the coast is still close. The beaches are around 20 minutes away, several golf courses about 15 minutes, and Albufeira and the international schools around 20 minutes. Faro airport is about 45 minutes by car.

Happy to show you around in person, or to talk through life in the Algarve interior first if you are still deciding between the coast and the hills.