A chance to try your luck at Ballyluck

The hint as to an advertised value of €30,000 an acre might be in the townland’s title — it’s a place called Ballyluck.

But, even a cursory walk of the land at this address near Clonakilty shows there’s added value here in this 15-acre West Cork land sale.

A few weeks on the market as part of an executor sale, a mint-order, century-old coastal cottage is part of this well-tended Ardfield Clonakilty area homestead, which includes quaint old stone sheds with curved roofs, and other bone-dry old stone courtyard buildings, as well as a lofted old stone barn with lean-to, found down the narrowest of roads, between scenic coves.

Set a few miles from Clonakilty, from Dunmore House Hotel, and from Ardfield village, and its just-extended national school, this is a lifestyle package par excellence. There’s 15 acres of top quality farmland in four divisions, divided by a quiet country coastal road, with shoreline frontage over cliffs, and with wide, ocean views east to the Old Head of Kinsale, and west to the near prospect of postcard-pretty and sheltered Dunnycove. The land is all in pasture, with extensive frontage to the quiet local lanes, and it has been rented out for €300 per year an acre in the recent past.

The old, dormer-style two-bed farmhouse is immaculate, and upgraded with an eye to keeping its character, and it could easily be extended into one of the stone outbuildings for a courtyard cluster type end-result.

It’s the other, larger lofted barn that holds vast conversion potential, thanks to the views past a few of the fields that you could proudly and properly call your own — if you have the €450,000 or so sought by Clonakilty-based selling agent Henry O’Leary.

He’s not keen to sell in lots — so farmers who know good land will have to compete with buyers lured by the extraordinary seaside setting, who’ll note the proximity of Ballycoosheen cove down a narrow green lane, which is a noted safe spot for boat launches. The hinterland has some one-off architect-designed homes, and non-farming buyers might harbour dreams of such a product on these 15 Ballyluck acres, and plan to lease most of the land back out for some income.