Coastal gem is ship shape

Tommy Barker finds a gem facing on to the quays in picturesque Newport.

WITH a generous scattering of islands to explore in Clew Bay, Mayo’s Newport is a sailor’s heaven.

And, when you drop anchor at the end of a day of boat-borne island-hoping, Villa Rosa isn’t a bad place at all to come to.

The older-style detached house faces onto the quays in the picturesque coastal village/town, a short drive north along the shoreline and Bay from trendy Westport.

Its owners are in the property/architecture professional line, and have put a clear modernising stamp on the circa 100-year-old home, as likely to be bought as a second home as a full-time family home.

It is newly listed for sale with Rachel Guthrie of Quay Properties in Westport, with a €690,000 price guide.

For this, a buyer will get a five bedroomed house (the fifth bed is across the courtyard, in a linked stone outhouse conversion), renovated and extended since 2003 with its resident architect occupant overseeing and dictating the work, and this set-back from the quays house also has a cobbled courtyard, walled garden with rear lawns, boat house and off-street parking.

Other accommodation includes hall, sun-room conservatory with water views, open plan kitchen/dining space with lots of glazing brightening up a 40’ by 12’ space, and units in solid wood with granite tops and island.

The living room is a nice 22’ by 12’, with simple ceiling cornice work, with double doors to the courtyard, there’s a guest loo off the hall, and overhead is a family bathroom with roll-top, cast-iron bath and high level cistern, laundry room, four bedrooms with one en suite shower room, whilst the attached converted stone outbuilding (renovated in 2005) is reached via the dining room, and has a bedroom with courtyard access, shower room and an overhead, slender 23’ by 9’ living room with modern gas insert and steps to the upper/raised walled garden section.

Decor levels are high, there’s a copper roof on a rear extension and a sheltered, enclosed, courtyard garden which acts as a link to the refurbished outhouse/guesthouse with separate access.

With its river and waterside setting, sentinel viaduct and services, Newport is a scenic seaside draw with watersports and tourism attractions, the nearby Newport House Hotel is well regarded, and the town’s through-route leads to Mulranny and onto Achill, offering some of the most dramatic landscapes in the country. On your Newport doorstep.