Western delight

SUITABLE for a cult, or a commune, and coming with its own smoking room - that’s part of the sales pitch for Beach House, which is just new to the market on the Aran Islands.

The islands have been described by Seamus Heaney as “stepping stones out of Europe.”

Ireland’s west coast has had a recent history of attracting alternative lifestyles, religions and groupings - the Moonies and the Screamers being just a few cases in point - and the three Aran Islands have physical remains stretching back to the Celts and early Christians.

And, now, with alternative lifestyles moving more mainstream, the buyer-trawling net for 12-bedroomed Beach House is being cast on a wide spread of waters by John Hamilton, of Jackson Stops who seeks 850,000 for a house with what clearly is an alternative lifestyle setting.

Inis Mór has some of the country’s most visited ruins and traces of antiquity, including Dun Aonghasa, beehive huts, a mosaic of stone ringed patchwork fields and megalithic remains, such as Leaba Dhiarmada agus Ghrianne, a wedge tomb dating to 2000BC.

Ironically, with improved and faster ferry access to the Aran Islands, as well as an air link, and vastly increased numbers of visitors, one effect of swifter access is that it is as easy to leave the island after a day trip as it is to stay overnight, and this is likely to have an impact on the islands’ existing guest accommodation.

So, finding niche markets may be a way forward for the rocky islands, stuck out into the wild Atlantic coast and hugely dependent on tourism to boost the local economies.

A property like Beach House in Inis Mor, the largest of the three Aran Islands, could suit for a commune or meditation centre, or as a base for think-tank, brainstorming or retreat corporate weekends, argues Mr Hamilton, who seeks offers close to 850,000 for the purpose-built accommodation overlooking the island’s sandy Blue Flag Beach.

Location is at Kilmurvey, half way along the nine mile long island, five miles from landing point Kilronan, and Beach House itself is on an acre of grounds.

Given the thousands of miles of stone ditches, (a local child, asked why there were so many ditches, is said to have replied ‘it’s because we have so many fields’) and stone ruins, building a place like Beach House in stone might have been overkill - instead it is in traditional white, a two-storey house sunken slightly into a grassy site.

It has 12 bedrooms, all ensuite, the attic is almost fully completed for an owner’s apartment (but needs planning permission) and there is also kitchen, sitting room, dining room, reception/office and dispense bar.

There’s even a study, also described in Jackson Stops’ sales brochure as a smoking room, which may yet provide a key to new ownership - possibly the last free smoking point between Boston and Berlin, a tiny collection of glowing and lights adrift in the briny Atlantic. What chance the occupants will be called the Puffins?