Cast your lines and land this Blackwater beauty

NOT even a week on the market, and already viewers have been flocking to this river Blackwater offering.

The bungalow on its own private grounds and with access to the river at Ardsallagh, opposite the magnificent Ballynatray estate, is for sale with Property Partners Burke Wall, who have it under immediate offer.

They are seeking €650,000 for the tidy-sized house and one of the first to see it lobbed in a quick bid in the mid €500,000s. It has some way to travel, but take off it undoubtedly will. It may well overshoot the price target once enough viewers get it in their sights.

Location is by a wooded bend in the river, along the Blackwater a few miles from Youghal, on the Waterford side. This stretch is Ireland’s version of the prettier parts of the Rhine and is highly prized. Case in point is the further sums being poured into the Ballynatray estate: it was bought back in 2004 for over €11 million by Galway-rooted, but London-based Henry Gwyn Jones of Gort Securities, who added considerably to the 400 acres he first bought it on and is lavishly and expensively re-ordering interior and grounds.

Ardsallagh is rather more affordable, on a quiet cul de sac road serving just a few private dwellings. “It’s going to suit someone looking to retire to a beautiful spot, ideal for fishing and boating,” says Burke Wall’s Christine Kelly.

Doctors and callers from Dublin have been the first to respond, and one keen viewer almost instantly flew down to Cork to see this spot and dip a metaphorical toe in the water in this famous fishing river.

Anyone who does hanker after this handsome spot will be spending further: the main dwelling is only about 850 sq ft, and the site deserves more.

The property has a surrounding skirt of sheds and garage, so maybe trading these in, in planning terms, for a sympathetic house design might persuade planners to permit a grander, or contemporary, house here.

The current dwelling has a living room, kitchen/dining, two bedrooms and main bathroom, a sort of apartment lay-out, in fact, all on a scenic site of one-third of an acre or less.

Most of the house is set back a bit from the water’s edge, with a laneway serving one house acting as a bit of a divide, but the site does include a portion of land right by the water, now with a deck and steps built to get at the water more easily.

“Properties like this rarely come to the market, and for good reason,” says Ms Kelly of the unusual, grab-it-and-savour-it option. “It strikes the perfect note between new and old, elegance and tradition,” she adds, with ‘opportunity,’ ‘potential’ and lifestyle’ descriptions all also hovering in the background.

It is half a mile upriver from the main Blackwater bridge outside Youghal, with Blue Flag beaches nearby, and Youghal, Lismore and Ardmore are convenient competing attractions.

Don’t spare the rod.