House of the week: Ballycroneen, East Cork €375,000

Size: 159 sq m (1,700 sq ft)

You’d never know what chefs, cooks and celebs you’d see on the beach in front of this East Cork home — it’s where the likes of Darina Allen and various Ballymaloe entourages come to picnic, fish, forage and harvest seaweed.

And, with the créme de la créme of food writers in Cork next week for the Ballymaloe literary food festival, it’s likely that one or two will take time out to dip a toe in the ocean, and pick up an ingredient or two for free.

Ballycroneen is one of the region’s lesser sung, and lesser swum, beaches, linked at low tide to the likes of Ballybrannigan and most popular with locals, who value its tranquillity, free from madding crowds. It’s also a favourite stopping off point during the annual 15km cliff walk from Ballycotton to Ballinsrostig, in aid of Chernobyl Children’s Trust, with free refreshments for walks by this beach-side bungalow, just up for sale.

Midleton estate agent Adrianna Hegarty is selling this dormer home with such a great aspect at Ballycroneen, a literal stone’s skip to the water’s edge.

On the site of a former coastguard station, it was built back around 2000 by a couple, Eddie and Eileen Irwin, who knew well their East Cork and West Waterford coastline glories. They’d been owners of the previous modest incarnation of the Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore, selling up in the early 2000s, aiming to retire to Ballycroneen beach, and they also owned and ran the Berkeley Restaurant in Cloyne, called after locally-born philosopher and bishop, George Berkeley.

He gave his name to the town of Berkeley in California... funny how far-flung ripples can spread from places often deemed to be ’under the radar.’

Oh, and another international link with the hinterland and headlands here is actress Angela Lansbury, aka Jessica Fletcher in the 300-episode TV series Murder, She Wrote, who’s had a home and bolthole here since the 1970s and who upgraded it in the 1980s. Indeed, you never quite know who’ll be on these beaches.

Who will be next to live at this Ballycroneen dormer home? Auctioneer Ms Hegarty expects UK and overseas inquiries, to be sure, but at the €375,000 price level, there will also be local inquires, she feels.

After one or two early showings, she says some may even look at putting on more space, perhaps a contemporary addition to make even more of the beach vista, and in fact the adjoining home, a smart take on the Irish farmhouse vernacular by architect Paul Keating shows that planners are open to approaches, once the design is right. “A new owner could add value, I see loads of extra potential here,” says Ms Hegarty.

As it stands, this dormer home called Tig Alainn has just over 1,700 sq ft, on a south and sea-facing site of over 0.5 of an acre, with detached garage, all a short commute from Midleton, and Irwin family members say they can commute daily from beach to the city in summer, hitting the Dunkathel roundabout in 25 minutes.

Rooms include a 27’ by 13’ kitchen/dining room with pine units and old stripped pine dresser, a 16’ by 13’ sitting room with stove, sun room, utility, and four en suite bedrooms, and there are smoke, fire and burglar alarms, plus oil-fired central heating.

Outside, are lawns, patio and BBQ area, and the garage has granny flat/guest use or teenage pad potential, subject to planning consent.

VERDICT: Beach days beckon.