Island-set home owned by nuns sells for €700k

Inchydoney House, on Inchydoney island near Clonakilty, had over 50 viewings from romantics and realists, thanks to a low initial €400,000 guide price, but was bought for the more hard-nosed €700k sum yesterday after three bidders went in spirited pursuit of the 1790s Georgian home on six acres with walled garden, a five minute hill walk from famed golden beaches, a top spa hotel and the so-called Virgin Mary sand-bank.
Originally a 1790s-built 5,000 sq ft Georgian house of the Hungerford landlord family, it is going to need renewal and cash lavished on it, but, in its 1960s heyday “was just a heavenly place”, said Presentation Order nun Sr Lelia Finn who, as a teenage novice in 1963, spent a summer of freedom on Inchydoney Island among her fledgling, and clothed from head to toe in religious garb, sisters-to-be.