Cottage fits like a glove

THIS seaside cottage is going to fit some new owner hand in glove — at least it did so for its vendor, actor and puppeteer Dominic Moore.

A new market arrival as the summer holiday season ends, this Sandscove, Clonakilty hideaway is one of those great goods, in a small package sort of offering. Heck, its price guide is just €230,000, and it has a beach just around the corner.

It was bought in 2002 by actor and TV puppeteer Dominic Moore (programmes he’s worked on since the 1990s include Rimini Riddle, the Morbegs, The Swamp, Sattitude, etc), who took on its renovations with gusto, as it had been unlived in for about 10 years beforehand.

When not up to his elbows and armpits in puppets and work, Dominic, has had a ball here in the interim, clearly embraced seaside and country living, but is city-bound once more, a move of just 35 miles or so to his employment base in Cork city.

Just three minutes walk away is Sandscove, a sheltered beach which fizzes each August bank holiday weekend with an angling competition which attracts dozens of intrepid fishermen, ending up with a fish fry-up and a live music gig at the near Mountain Bar (O’Mahony’s) in Ardfield village. Immediately after, though, Sandscove goes back to quiet slumbers — though Dominic regularly fishes here from a kayak.

“There’s great walks and beaches all around here, Red Strand, Dirk Cove, and if I go just over the hill to Bulls Cove I can see the seals basking on the rocks,” says the similarly acclimatised Dominic, as he this week took his puppet Basher (pictured above) to farther flung Cape Clear for a show.

Basher’s base for the last few years has been this Sandscove house, a traditional two-up, two down home fairly fully refurbished and upgraded, insulated (it is in fact a 1930s mass concrete structure) and Dominic has adapted it to have its main living area, and main bedroom upstairs, in an atmospheric space under dark wood panelled sloping ceilings.

The cottage has character in abundance “but now probably needs a woman’s touch,” says Dominic, not specifying if that might mean dusting, or something a bit heavier. The kitchen is basic, but perfectly adequate, and there’s a front porch added on, plus a rear conservatory.

Setting is pretty private at the rear, but with a quiet lane and a handful of neighbouring homes to the front in a bit of a residential cluster quite typical of the Ardfield/Rathbarry/Clonakilty hinterland.

Selling agent is Kieran O’Gorman in Clonakilty, six miles away, and he says it can as readily be bought for full-time or second/holidayhome use.

This Sandscove cottage’s acre is mostly to the back, and includes veg beds for potatoes and cabbages, and there’s a shed, a home-made hot tub done in west Cork vernacular style (ie, made out of an old stainless steel bulk milk tank) and in addition to the house, there’s a serviced and serviceable mobile home to the back, which can be kept for guests — or simply removed, no strings attached.