Cover story: Get an eyeful of Blind Harbour in West Cork

Union Hall, West Cork €795,000

WEST Cork is blessed with abundant beaches, secluded coves, strands with dunes and woods, secret swimming spots and hideaways that sometimes you need a boat or a kayak to discover.

And, every now and then for those exploring byways on foot, by bike or by car, taking a turn up a grass-striped boreen throws up a rare find: Blind Harbour is one such place. Travel a couple of miles out from Union Hall, just a bit further from Glandore, out to Reen pier and a sandy spit called the League which looks out on Castletownshend village’s scenic setting.

Here, by the spit with its beached boats and directly opposite signs advertising whale watching, dolphin watching and kayaking among other marine activities, a narrow lane with grass up the middle winds uphill. There’s no sign pointing to Blind Harbour, or any indication at all that signals that just a kilometre up and over a hill it ends in yet another sheltered beauty spot where there’s just a couple of gloriously sited homes bunkered down at its cul de sac end, each with direct private shore access.

The grassy road splits at the entrance to these two houses on the edge of the shingly Blind Harbour, and now one (built to replace a former coastguard cottage and seen here in its discreet glory) is for sale, complete with boat-launching slip. Carrying a €795,000 asking price via Maeve McCarthy of Charles P McCarthy auctioneers in Skibbereen, this is a superbly built and maintained four-bed home, with an ‘upside-down’ layout and great upstairs spaces for sea views, on a two-thirds of an acre natural site – and it’s all simply serene and beautiful.

In fact, visiting on a sunny weekend morning, it sort of felt like a hideaway at the end of the world – and would feel even more so if it weren’t for the fact that it shares the setting with one other, larger and older house. That 4,000 sq ft house next door, also with coastguard/diving centre roots (plus outdoor swimming pool) was for sale earlier this year (it was our House of the Week in February) with a €1.5m price tag, but is currently off the market.

So, here’s the immediate chance to buy a slice of coastal paradise, billed by Ms McCarthy as “one of the most picturesque and secluded harbours in West Cork”.

Built about 12 years ago, this quality house was designed as a holiday home for a private client by Limerick-born architect Don Henihan, who’s now retired but who remembers this project and its setting with clear affection, as well as recalling the planning rigours applied to it.

While very modern in terms of comforts and finishes inside, it doffs a cap to the vernacular rural area farmhouse style, due in part to things like roof pitch, use of slate, raised gable barges and rough-dash external finish. Even though it’s a total new-build, it looks like it could have been an older building refurbished.

“The raised barges are very practical, especially for houses in coastal areas exposed to strong winds, and you’d see it also in places like Scotland and Brittany also,” says Mr Henihan, who adds he was hugely impressed with the quality of West Cork builders (CH O’Mahony) and tradespeople who worked on this build.

It’s a clever design, very site specific, with gable-end stone and limestone-flagged steps to a welcoming balcony and upstairs hall. There’s a view right through the house, past the practical galley kitchen, to a large raised and decked balcony, arching over to the roof of a detached garage and creating a sheltering car-port/boat park underneath.

This elevated balcony is surrounded on three sides by high, clear glass panels braced by sturdy stainless steel rails. It’s high enough to provide considerable shelter from the winds, and on dry days really qualifies as a ‘room outdoors.’

Then, there’s yet another great viewing spot to the front of the house, where there’s a compact balcony off the main 23’ by 13’ living room; it’s sort of a crow’s nest vantage point, just large enough for a couple of chairs and small table, for evening sun-down drinks, morning coffee, or afternoon tea.....any excuse at all to sit out will do, in fact.

Main rooms are sensibly positioned, in the main, for the views over the small, sheltered bay running from south Reen to Myross: its nearest, adjacent bigger bays are Glandore to the east, and Castlehaven to the west.

The two adoining reception rooms are to the front upstairs, each with high, vaulted ceilings and feature exposed joists and rafters, and glazing frames are is timber, Rationel or similar with blue alu-clad on the exterior for weather protection.

There’s a calmness to the linked, lofty reception rooms, due to a restricted, natural palette of fossil-rich limestone floor, pitch pine joinery and plain, sand and cement-plastered walls, all painted white and then injected with blasts of colour for interest, from numerous paintings, sketches and prints.

The joinery is a joy to survey, from features like the hefty Douglas Fir joists with dowel wood pegs in the assembly – just as in the old days – to bespoke pitch-pine panel doors. Nearly all the wood inside is, in fact, lustrous pitch-pine, or maritime pine, with its rich red veins, a world above the usual knotty pine standard seen in abundance in homes of this early 2000s vintage.

It’s used for floors, doors, skirtings and architraves, built-ins and for the timeless kitchen units also, topped with a green granite or marble.

It took ages to source enough pitch-pine for the c 1,850 sq ft house, much of it sourced from old beams bought in Tipperary.

The house also has expensive Dura limestone, used at its upstairs level, with underfloor heating facilitated by a concrete slab, and with water heated by a geothermal source.

Two of the four bedrooms have en suite bathrooms, there’s a main family bathroom too, and upstairs is a guest WC, and all bathroom have high quality, but unfussy fittings and finishes.

This home makes great use of the c 1,850 sq ft at its disposal, with just a short downstairs corridor accessing the bedrooms, the staircase is to the back of the house too along with utility and storage, so that every room that matters gets a view to the front, to the sea, the sun and the south. Smart design, essentially.

Even though the kitchen’s to the back, a large cut-out wall section gives it views towards the front through the bright living room – bright by day and night, with up to 32 recessed spotlights, and eight uplighters. This home, as adaptable for full-time residency as for holiday uses and on a simply landscaped 0.6 acre waterfront site with slipway and mooring, had been ’sale agreed’, but that quiet deal fell through just this month, so there’s now a bit more market exposure, as the summer’s final weeks draw in.

VERDICT: Ideal for those who want to get away from it all, as the setting is sublime, with a level of finish well above the norm.