Rare Great Blasket plot with 46-acre holding for sale
For all those among us of a certain age who have come through the experience of the Leaving Certificate, they will have mixed feelings about the Blasket Islands off the Kerry coast.
Firstly, there is the rugged beauty of this uninhabited gem of an island — known in the local vernacular as An Blascaod Mór — that offers a powerful romantic ideal of island life in one of the most beautiful parts of the country.
On the other hand, there are those whose only association with the island has been through the often pessimistic prism of Peig Sayers’ autobiography — a book that was for a long time an obligatory but largely unloved part of the Leaving Cert curriculum.
The largest of the Blasket Islands is uninhabited now but there are still plenty of day trippers who make the pilgrimage to the fascinating island and there are also those who transport their sheep flocks to and from the Great Blasket, which offers some surprisingly fine grazing.
Auctioneer Mike Kennedy of Dingle Properties is currently offering a 46-acre chunk of this agricultural outpost, and its historical and cultural significance seems to be making this modest piece of agricultural land one of the most talked-about in Munster:
“It’s only just gone on the market and there’s been a huge amount of interest in it so far,” says Mike, adding that it’s not easy to see how many of the enquiries are of agricultural interest.
It most certainly represents an unique opportunity no matter what way one looks at it. The Great Blasket’s place in Irish history is assured. It was inhabited for centuries until 1953. Along with emigarting to the US, some of the last islanders moved to the mainland, many of them in the townlands in and around Dunquin, from where they could view the great island that was their home and which cuts a hauntingly beautiful presence across Blasket Sound.
For those who are farming on the island, it is an enterprise that is not without its challenges.
“The most difficult thing is getting the sheep on and off the island,” says Mike. “There are a few — maybe three or four — who would use it for summer grazing and they have been doing it for years. There isn’t a pier on the island so you’re going in and out on a rubber dinghy, transporting the sheep from a larger boat to a smaller boat, so it’s not the easiest.”
One of the advantages of the island’s cultural status (apart from Peig Sayers, the island is associated with writer JM Synge and scholars Carl Marstrander and Robin Flower), is that Ireland has purchased some of the island’s properties and operates a national park there.
Thus, a regular ferry service is run from Dunquin in good weather, complimenting a number of smaller operators that can transport visitors to the island from both Dingle and Ventry.
The farm consists of the ruin of a cottage dwelling in the former village on the island, along with three small parcels of land totalling approximately four acres. One field is on the north side of the island. The second field is facing east overlooking one of the most beautiful sandy beaches on the island (locally known as An Trá Bhán). The third field is located right beside the ruined cottage.
“The rest of the land comprises a 42-acre share of the commonage of the island,” says Mike, who must have thought long and hard about coming up with a price for such a property. With very little to compare it with and with an agricultural value that involves grazing value which is compromised by difficult access, its value will surely be determined by a clearly curious market. The price guide in this case is set at €110,000. Let’s see just how curious the public is.
