Nostalgia in shop sale

Former village shop is choc-a-bloc with everything from glass to religious pictures, writes Tommy Barker.

WELCOME to the blast from the past, a village home and shop, where time has stood still, but is about to gather pace. The former O’Regan’s shop, overlooking the Atlantic from the heights of Ardfield village six miles from Clonakilty, has finally come up for sale, an utter timepiece after its doors closed a decade or more ago, and bursting with potential for the mildly brave.

When visited by the Irish Examiner, it was chock-a-bloc with nostalgia, auction finds, old crockery and glass, religious pictures and statuary — even old newspapers — nothing, it seems, ever got thrown out.

The late owner was an auction fiend, and never returned empty handed or could resist a seeming bargain, so there’s a random selection of old chests, lamps, by the room load, as well as a secure 40’ by 22’ shed, also fairly full to the brim: auctioneer Jim O’Brien of CCM Property Services says the family who inherited and now have it for sale hope it will be bought, ahem, with contents included. And, there could be a find or two among the thousand of things littering this most fascinating of buildings.

It’s a wholly distinctive building on a quarter acre in the pretty coastal setting, with a double roof and a peculiar cut-out front corner at ground level where the shop’s double doors are. It’s quite residential, though, with four high-ceilinged first floor bedrooms and a rear bathroom with immense cast iron roll-top bath (but no septic tank) and three reception roms: for many years, it also served as the local health centre (a ‘dispensary depot’), with a doctor and midwife visiting weekly from Rosscarbery, and that role is recalled in a wall plaque noting its service under the West Cork Board of Health and Public Assistance.

It needs complete refurbishment, says Mr O’Brien and the hope is it will be rescued and rehabilitated rather than knocked, and apart from its immense character it has road presence, sea and Galley Head views, and masses of scope.

The village has a thriving pub, a just-extended primary school and new creche, top sports facilities and beaches nearby.

What chance a tea room, craft shop or other mix of home and business for an entrepreneurial buyer? It could pay some of its purchase price back by a sale of bric-a-brac and auction treasures?

VERDICT: Fortune favours the brave.