A House Built From the Trees on Its Own 117 Acres
$615,000
Burkesville sits in Cumberland County, in the rolling hills of far southern Kentucky near the Tennessee line — 117 acres of hardwood timber, food plots, and creek bottom in Dale Hollow country.
The story here is the house itself, built in 2022 as a genuine labor of love from materials harvested right off the land: hickory floors underfoot, walnut doors, and a primary bedroom wrapped in aromatic cedar, all milled from the property's own trees. Vaulted ceilings open over an easy, flowing floor plan; the kitchen cooks on gas behind a ceramic backsplash; and dual wood-and-central heat keeps it warm through every season. Tucked beneath the home are a dedicated workshop and a safe room. Outside, a wraparound porch with wood ceilings looks down over a creek, and a three-car garage — one stall built extra-tall for a boat or a tractor — anchors the place. There's even a walk-through cave on the land, and an above-ground pool with a deck for summer. 3 bd / 2 ba, 2,300 sq ft, on 117.87 acres.
Listed at $615,000, recently trimmed by a few thousand. Listing courtesy of Sherri J. Butler, McIver Realty Group.
Homestead Potential
Water & Infrastructure
A creek winds along below the wraparound porch — the kind of steady water that gives a property its soundtrack and pulls deer down at dusk. For bigger water, Dale Hollow Lake is a short drive: roughly 27,000 acres of famously clear reservoir straddling the Kentucky–Tennessee line, long celebrated for smallmouth bass. The home runs on a private well and septic, standard for rural Cumberland County — worth confirming the flow and condition of both, but between the creek, the well, and the lake nearby, water is one of this place's quiet strengths.
Crop & Income Potential
This land is set up for someone who wants to live partly off of it. Four clover-and-chickpea food plots are already established and drawing wildlife, fruit trees are in the ground, and a poured concrete pad waits for whatever comes next — a barn, a greenhouse, a second building. The 117 acres of mixed hardwoods — walnut, white oak, poplar — are both a standing timber asset and a working game woods, so the deer and turkey here are a genuine food source, not just scenery. It's homestead ground first, recreation second.
Sustainability
The whole house is a case study in building with what you have: framed and finished from its own trees, heated by wood as readily as by the central system, and grounded by a safe room and workshop below. Put those together — self-milled materials, a wood-heat backup, food plots, standing timber — and you get the kind of resilience that's usually a to-do list here already done rather than aspirational. You'd be stepping into a homestead someone already thought hard about.
The Boundaries
At 117 acres with a creek running through it, a current survey is money well spent — you'll want the lines, the creek, and every outbuilding confirmed inside your legal edges before closing, not after. Ask about the timber while you're at it: walnut and white oak of this quality carry real value, so it's worth knowing whether any harvest rights or easements were ever carved off. And that walk-through cave is a wonderful oddity — have someone who knows caves take a look, so you understand exactly what you'd be stewarding.
Beyond the Property Line
Local Flavor & Small-Town Character
Burkesville is the small county seat of Cumberland County, set on the Cumberland River in a deeply rural pocket of south-central Kentucky. This is Dale Hollow country, and the town leans into the lake and river that define it — a trailhead, a veterans memorial park, and the unhurried pace of a place where the water matters more than the highway. Nashville is close enough for a city day, about two hours south, but the appeal here is the opposite of a city.
Agricultural Resources & Neighbor Networks
The University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension keeps a Cumberland County office, and its programs — soil testing, orchard and garden guidance, and the Kentucky Master Gardener track — are a natural fit for a property that already has fruit trees and food plots going. For the timber side, the Kentucky Division of Forestry offers free stewardship planning, genuinely worth using on 117 acres of hardwood worth managing well. Feed and farm-supply stores in and around Burkesville cover the day-to-day.
Outdoor Recreation & Natural Surroundings
The headline is Dale Hollow Lake State Resort Park, minutes away — a crystal-clear reservoir with a marina, beaches, and a lodge, plus the adjacent Dale Hollow Golf Course. The Cumberland River Trailhead and Veterans Memorial Park sit close to town, and the property's own riding and walking paths let you disappear into the hardwoods without leaving home. Between the lake, the river, and 117 private acres, the outdoor calendar here stays full from spring through deer season.
Listed on Zillow
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