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

An island-set West Cork period home owned by nuns for 50 years, used for novices of an enclosed order in the 1960s and enjoyed by youth groups on retreat more recently, sold at auction for €700,000.

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.