Cool coastal property in Finure, Co Cork
The property is situated in the townland of Finure, along the eastern stretch of Cork’s enormous coastline — just an ocean-smoothed pebble throw away from Trabolgan Holiday Village.
This latter tourist attraction has been a feature of Irish life for over 30 years.
It began in the mid-1970s as self-catering cottages designed mainly for the continental market.
A Dutch pension fund was behind the investment in an era when the ranks of foreign property buyers were dominated by Dutch and Germans.
Today, the visitor centre continues in its upgraded activity-centred format, attracting a huge amount of families and groups to this blessed part of the Irish coastline and introducing them to its charms.
A little further west of here, the dramatic Roches Point cuts a familiar presence to anyone taking one last look at Ireland on the Cork-Roscoff ferry to France.
To the north, the Cork Harbour industrial zone is represented by Aghada and Whitegate.
Rich agricultural land is one of the more outstanding qualities of East Cork, much of it running as close to the seashore as one would think possible.
Such is the case with this holding. For the most part, it consists of superb land — well laid out and very well maintained, as well as being of a free-draining nature.
Along the edge where the land meets the sea, however, there is a smaller sub-section of coastline which has little or no agricultural value.
“The land is very good,” says Mr Buckley. “There is a bit of headland there, all right, but the land is of top quality for the most part.”
According to the agent, this piece of lesser quality represents 10 acres of the total.
Now, the land is all under tillage, having most recently had a corn crop taken from it. It would, however, lend itself well to any agricultural activity, according to the selling agent: “Yes, it’s general purpose land from start to finish.”
The property doesn’t come with any entitlements but is in a strong area of productivity, with plenty of important markets close by. Cork City is 40km away via the N25, while the important market towns of Midleton (18km), Cobh (36km) and Castlemartyr (26km) are within easy reach.
There is one building on the land — a shed situated close to the entrance which is a useful structure but is in need of modernisation. As Christy puts it: “It has the makings of a fine shed.”
The farm doesn’t have roadside access but the avenue into it has zero complications and suits the purpose of access very well, no matter what the vehicle required: “It’s fine wide access for modern machinery or whatever one might be using.”
Land blocks of over 50 acres in this area and of this quality are not making their way onto the market in any great quantity so it’s no surprise to learn that there is already a good level of interest building up.
“There are plenty of progressive farmers in the area,” says Mr Buckley. “From Midleton westwards… I even have people from West Cork already looking at it.”
The price, according to the agents, is a guideline in the region of €10,000/acre.
This would appear to be a logical assessment of the value of such quality land in a good location, with the caveat of the clearly-defined poorer section of coastline.
While it’s clear that the property is already interesting a number of serious farmers with their business heads firmly on their shoulders, it will be equally fascinating to see if the charm factor has any influence on the final figure.
After all, it’s not every day that a chunk of quality land by the sea comes up for sale.
