Join the privileged few in a glorious natural setting
A PATCHWORK of sea, harbour, field, forest rock and hill is laid out in glorious display beneath Baywood, a large home up for sale at Rushanes in West Cork's select Glandore area.
There's a trade-off between the advantages of water frontage and elevated settings, and hilly Glandore is one of the few places where some few fortunate house owners (such as TV's Carol Vorderman, or media baron Tony O'Reilly) can have both together.
However, Rushanes is necessarily a place apart: you'll hardly get six acres of land in the village, for love or even for Sir Tony's money.
So, to get this six acres, plus house, guest annexe, garage and stables with three loose boxes, it is an uphill trot of about a half a mile from the supremely picturesque village. Its elevation opens out even better views than are available from the village.
Guided at €2.5 million by estate agent Charles P McCarthy in nearby (seven miles) Skibbereen, Baywood is one of the stronger-priced houses in the Glandore area, where nothing at all in the property stakes comes cheaply.
One million euro house sales are, well, ten a penny in this hinterland, but modern-build Baywood will need a special buyer willing to pay more handsomely for the handsomest site.
The agents know the buyers are out there, and they are not all returning emigrants via the UK and USA either: Dublin's new millionaire classes provide a modicum of buyers, such as those who emerged last year for the wonderful waterside estate Shambala, done up by an artist, which made about €3.5 million, and Kinsale's Palace Wharf, changing hands in February of this year for around €4 million. Other exceptional Co Cork coastal properties have reportedly had offers as much as €6 million made on them ... and refused.
Built by a local family and run part-time as a B&B, Baywood, is a comparatively recent-build, running to around 5,000 sq ft of space which spins off a large, open and welcoming hallway with the sine qua non of comfort, an open fireplace with gallery overhead via a winding and carpeted stairs.
Rooms include a plant-friendly sun room with terrace access, drawing room also opening to a terrace, a dining room and a family room also both opening to the great outdoors, a library to open up the interior landscapes, and flooring in most rooms is maple. The 20' by 15' kitchen has units in pitch pine and cedar, with an overhead beamed ceiling. Many of the rooms share an integrated sound system.
Meanwhile, bedrooms are divided into east and west wings, with four (three with ensuite bathrooms) in the former, and two more in the latter. The guest annexe, meanwhile, has an 18' by 10' living room plus an overhead en suite bedroom.
Design and construction materials are traditional, with a slate roof, windows are double glazed hardwood and lots of stone is used in the facades and in the sheltering terrace wall, which curves away from the house to snugly shield the outdoor hot tub and decking area.
In all, there's about six acres of ground, which is well set up for those into horses, with a railed paddock, stable block, garage and mature screening.
Glandore village, strung along a narrow 'rollercoastal' road, is at Rushanes' feet, with busier Union Hall across the harbour and a significant-sized new housing scheme there visible on the hills.
The area, just over an hour from Cork city and airport, has bars and restaurants, a lively cosmopolitan mix assembled over decades, and is dotted with coves, beaches and antiquities.
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