Starter home: Leap, West Cork €149,000

BACK and busier than ever is the West Cork village of Leap, a scenic small community by a tidal inlet at the top of Glandore harbour, on the main N71 route to points further west.

Sq m 93 (1,000 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 1

BER: F

A sheltering spot with a long road presence and a dip at its centre with water views, Leap (pronounced Lepp) is reckoned to be the biggest village in the county, thanks to all the townlands associated with its length.

It’s slap-bang on the Wild Atlantic Way too, and is benefiting nicely from that. Last year, a new diner/restaurant opened up, very sensibly called after the WAW, and across the road from Ger’s Wild Atlantic Way Diner is another bit of niche marketing, called the Motorcycle Grill — with non-bikers welcome.

There have been moves to reopen one of Leap’s more famous bars, the famed live music venue Connollys, and the village has several other excellent shops and bars with food, a second-hand goods shop and treasure-trove book store, and even a furniture store. Leap is doing very nicely, thank you — and , now, the chance to buy into its village core has come with the sale of Heron Cottage.

A smartly-kept older era home, it’s a three-bed of about 1,000 sq ft, and is priced at €149,000 by Michéal Duggan of Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill’s reopened Skibbereen office.

Layout is simple enough, rooms left and right of a central hall, and each of the two are about 22’ deep, front to back, with three bedrooms plus bathroom upstairs. Access between floors is via a spiral staircase, in the kitchen/dining room, which also has access to the rear patio courtyard.

VERDICT: Look, before you Leap.