Cut-stone building. Stop. Cable your interest in these apartments. Stop

WHAT with broadband technologies and satellite phones, it is easy to overlook the excitement — and importance — of the first transatlantic cable links.

Ireland's southwest coastline had some of the very first critical communication links, and names like Marconi still ring a bell.

Crookhaven, Waterville, Valentia and their ilk once occupied a strategic place on the chain of telegraph and telephone communications.

And, though the role is now historic, many of the buildings facilitating the opening up of the world's first chat-lines remain in fine fettle.

Taken on a new life is the Cable Station building in Waterville on the Ring of Kerry, once a work station for up to 400 people.

The cut-stone building, dating back to 1884 and with another section to 1899, was constructed by the Commercial Cable Company who ran six cables to the US, four to Britain and two to France. The plugs were pulled in the early 1960s, and the lines went silent.

Converted a few years ago to apartments, it has now been upgraded to 11 apartments for family or investment/rental use (including a former water tower) now for sale with Cork-based Davis Hunter auctioneers.

There's one unit at €155,000, but the rest range €185,000 to €225,000, and are being sold fully furnished/lettable, with from two to five bedrooms and from 600 to 1,300 sq ft.

Most novel of all is the three-storey Rapunzel-like structure, Waterville's Water Tower, converted to living quarters with a ground floor kitchen/dining, first floor living room with sofa bed and a top floor master bedroom with en suite and a €195,000 price guide.

Waterville, on the Ring of Kerry, is about to get a second golf course, fishing is renowned, and there's walks, cycles and beaches aplenty.