Nice car ... great farm

AFFORDABILITY is all relative - for some the cut off point is €130,000, for others a site of 110 acres is a snip at €1.27 million, particularly when that site is in Glandore.

This is, after all, the most chi-chi area in a region that has more than its fair share of yacht-setters. It is generally patronised by those who value seclusion and discretion above all else.

Publicity hungry celebrities are few and far between here - occasional residents tend to glide in quietly by boat without making waves.

Another aspect of the location is that properties are priced out of reach, (and are often over-reaching) with sales taking time, but in many cases, achieving spectacular results.

Planning permission is almost impossible to gain anywhere near the waterfront and in other cases the sustained level of objections have delayed or stopped new developments in the village.

While overdevelopment can kill the goose that laid the golden egg, objections to planning applications have seen many locals moving away because they either cannot get planning permission, or cannot afford to buy existing properties.

Sure to cause a stir in the coming weeks is the sale of 110 acres of waterfront farmland at Ballincolla, Union Hall, which overlooks Glandore Harbour and has direct access to the shorefront.

The farm is the property of well-known Glandor e-man Barty Whelton, who, unlike his near neighbour, Tony O’Reilly, likes to cut a bit of a dash around the locality in his vintage Rolls Royce and sports Mercedes. Barty, the son of a local farmer, left for America in 1937 and worked in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco before ending up in Alaska for two years.

“The money was very good in Alaska”, he says, “I worked as a builder and carpenter, but I had no life”.

With his earnings, Barty fulfilled the ambition of lots of Irish emigrants: when he returned home he bought 100 acres for £5,000, shortly after World War Two.

“Glandore was a far different place then”, he says “and there have been big changes in 40 years”.

The 110 acre farm is not the only one owned by Mr Whelton, but it is now surplus to requirements, and as an investor he has seen incredible appreciation on his purchase of 44 years ago.

The farm, he says, is directly across the harbour from Glandore and has a wonderful, sea-front location

Apart from its position, it has a number of other attractive attributes like a freshwater lake that’s a local bird sanctuary, with lots of migrating birds as well as native species.

The property has five coves and one in particular is so deep ‘you could berth the Queen Mary in it’ says the vendor.

The property also comes with an old farmhouse that’s set in a belt of mature trees, obscuring it from the coastline. This is a distinct advantage for planning purposes as visually obtrusive buildings are turned down on scenic amenity grounds.

The land also includes a look-out hut, (an unusual one room building in a derelict condition), and one of the five points onto the harbour has an older and more defensive version of a look-out - a promontory fort.

So, taken together, this farm on the edge of the ocean has a lot going for it - Barty Whelton suggests it would make an excellent golf club or it could be snapped up by some of Glandore’s more monied residents as a private estate. As a lifestyle property is could be second to none, with the right residence. As a golf course, it could attract the same clientele that play the Old Head course at Kinsale - green fees for one are in the 200 category and golfers are helicoptered in.

Henry O’Leary gives a guide price of €1.27 million for the 110-acre farm and expects plenty of interest from all quarters and countries.