Touchdown in Sherkin

IT isn’t because he is selling his Sherkin Island home that Steven Hayes is full of hot air. It’s his stock in trade.

Steven was part of the crew behind the successful Breitling Orbiter Round the World Hot Air Balloon trek back in 1999.

He worked on the novel pressurised carbon fibre cab and kerosene burners which propelled the two-man crew - Bertram Piccard and Brian Jones - to a successful circumnavigation of the globe, at 40,000 feet, from Chateau d’Oex in Switzerland to a successful touch-down in Egypt 22 days later.

However, it was Sherkin Island off the Baltimore coast in west Cork that tempted music-lovers Steven and his wife, Christine, to touch down in, back in 1998. Christine had visited a fiddle fair in Baltimore and made the 10-minute boat trip to Sherkin on a day trip. She fell for Horseshoe Harbour, a little-visited part of the easily-reached island, and after visits over a year (to check out the winter atmosphere of the island, as well) the couple decided to live there full time.

They bought Horseshoe Cottage and upgraded it further with four en suite bedrooms to allow for a seasonal bed-and-breakfast business. Steven became the island’s postman for a year - an ideal way to get to know the neighbours - and spent two years restoring an old 26ft timber boat. He later became Sherkin’s de facto chief lawn cutter, keeping gardens in trim for 22 different property owners. Now, having turned 50 last month, Steven is not going to let the grass grow under his feet. He and Christine are moving to La Gomera in the Canaries, a world heritage wildlife centre.

“We never thought we’d leave Sherkin, and are only doing it because something as attractive has come along,” he says of their move to their new property where they intend to rent out three small holiday homes.

So, pretty Horseshoe Cottage, with parts of it almost 400 years old, is for sale with Darragh Taaffe of Keane Mahony Smith who is a regular visitor to the island himself.

The cottage has views of Horseshoe Bay, an overlooked beauty spot near the lighthouse, but within a short walk of the pier, post office, shop, pubs and hotel on the island, which has five miles of roads, walking routes and a permanent population of over 100.

The extended, stone-built dormer cottage has a 30 x 15 ft living/dining room, with solid fuel stove and exposed ceiling beams, kitchen with slate floor, utility, four en suite bedrooms, pots of old world charm as well as a broadband IT link.

There’s the boat mooring in Horseshoe Harbour thrown in for the €475,000-plus asking price. And, room to touch down a balloon on the half-acre, south-facing site.