HOUSE OF THE WEEK

YOU can see the weather coming, for better or worse, from this private waterside perch near Tuosist, in Kenmare Bay.

Facing south-west out the bay from the Beara side, and billed as “a luxury waterfront property” by Kenmare town estate agent Elaine Daly, it’s far from a mansion in size terms, rather it’s modest in scale at 2,500 sq ft — but its grandeur is in the setting.

The modern home, built ten years ago by a UK/Irish couple, has strong selling points, enough to have garnered it early 2013 interest from the US and UK, with each of those international viewers looking to relocate to Munster for full-time residency, notes Ms Daly. (The same agents report early interest too in the Blackwater Bridge, Ring of Kerry home directly across the bay and which featured here last Saturday for German/Brazilian vendors, guiding €450k.)

Well-built, and priced at €550,000, Sedgemore’s a house for all seasons, stoutly finished in stone and slate and render, on 2.6 acres, with pond, pebble beach and private shore frontage as well. Owners are London-based Paul Boast and his wife Catherine White from Carrigaline, Cork, who started their holiday house search in Cork, and fetched up here where Cork and Kerry rub scenic shoulders.

“We kept driving until we came along this stretch, saw the mountains and the sea and I said ‘right, this is sufficiently different from England to want to come over,” recalls Mr Boast.

Local Kerry designer Pat Collins drew the plans (and supervised the build) to suit planners’ strictures; hopes for a dormer were dashed, so it’s all on one level, albeit with a double or at least extra height feature entrance hall, and most other rooms ranged out for the views.

The masons clearly were drafted in to work their mortar magic here, with quality drystone work as a calling card in the curved entrance hall wall, from floor to ceiling; the front and back facades also display their handiwork in limestone, while urn-like stone structures in sandstone from the fields and foreshore adorn the garden’s beds, with an eye out to the view.

Best viewing spot at Sedgecroft is almost certainly from within the curved front conservatory, with six panes of glass for views over rough garden, pond, beach, and towards Ormond Island, with its green toupée of grass above the rocky shoreline. The setting’s fine for beach picnics, sailing, fishing and swimming, says Ms Daly, while Coornagillagh pier’s just a half a mile away too.

Built in 2003, this single storey three-bed home has been both finished and kept to a good, high standard, say the auctioneers, with oil heating, alarm, mains water and broadband for keeping in touch with the wider world. There’s also a double garage, used for storing a boat which then gets put to a mooring for the summer months.

Rooms include an open plan lounge/dining area and curved sun room, kitchen with maple units and tiled floor, sun room with sloping beamed ceiling, a study, and hall way with vestibule. The master bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe, and bathroom; there’s also an en suite double bedroom with a twin bedroom, and there’s attic access for storage, with boarded floors.

Sedgecroft’s the first house on this site, where planning’s as rare as waterhen’s teeth, the 2.6 acres have been planted with a couple of hundred trees slowly making their way into the setting, and wildlife is rich and varied, from deer to seals. “Having a cup of tea one day, I looked out the window at what I though was a cat on the other side, it turned out to be an otter, and I’ve seen them rolling as well in the waves. You don’t see much of that in London,” admits Paul Boast.

VERDICT: Go with the flow.