Coolmain setting is selling point

VIEWERS need only give the most cursory glance over this four-bedroomed bungalow before deciding to buy - it is the site that will sell it.

Although the house itself is fine, albeit of an older, plainer design side, the setting here really is the star. To narrow the focus: the location is West Cork, in Courtmacsherry Bay, or, more precisely, Coolmain, just beyond Roy Disney’s spectacular real-life castle, by Coolmain Point.

Aspect is westerly, looking around Wood Point into the scenic and sheltered bay, a haunt of sailors and windsurfers and a base for the lifeboat service. Mature hedges and palm trees fringe your views.

This 1,300 sq ft bungalow, on a three-quarter acre site, will be sold to a moneyed person, be sure of that, and they will have to plan upgrades, extensions, a new building project even, subject to planning. Should someone buy it with a mind to budget, the first task will be to convert the garage, at a bare minimum: its up-and-over door shuns the views.

“This house is in a very special position, one of the nicest settings I’ve seen,” says estate agent, Henry O’Leary, of Clonakilty, part of the Property Partners network. “The location is as near to perfect as any position could be.”

The house has a west/south-west aspect, and large picture windows draw the views into the living room and into two of the bedrooms. There are two more bedrooms to the rear, a reasonable sized kitchen/dining area, and a small dining room, while oil fuels the central heating. Cork city is half an hour’s drive, Bandon and Kinsale are 15 minutes’ away, but, really, could you be bothered when the beach is a five-minute walk?