Starter home: Dromgarriff, Glengariff €69,950

This modernist gem, built in the 1970s, is fitted with perfect period furniture, writes Rose Martin.

Sq m: 84.36 (908 sq ft)

Beds 2

BER G .

Can you believe this house? It’s not just a time capsule in a beautiful place, it’s a bit of an architectural gem — with the benefit of being immaculately preserved.

Dubbed the Lookout, it can be acquired at auction shortly for a sum north of €70 grand.

Listed for the forthcoming Munster Property Auction, this single-storey, modernist house at Dromgarriff, Glengarriff, Co Cork, hasn’t been touched since it was built by Murnane and O’Shea in the 1970s to a design by Cork-based architects Kelly, Barry, & Associates.

Discrete and private, on a half-acre woodland site near Glengariff Golf Club, this is the antithesis of the normal, West Cork farmhouse offering, and it fits the feel of Glengariff, which has a sophisticated and private grouping of one-off houses within its folded, rocky terrain.

According to David O’Connor of Munster Property Auctions, (joint agent with REA Celtic Properties), the Lookout is accessed via a private roadway to a garden position that’s been sympathetically designed to complement and fit into the landscape.

A single-storey house, it’s just 908 sq ft and has two bedrooms and a living space fitted with perfect period furniture — including its original kitchen and bathroom.

The windows have been replaced, but the upside is that the house is perfectly and immediately habitable, with the option of purchasing the furniture too.

Architects, design nerds, and those with a keen eye for a bargain should give this property the once-over before the auction date of July 9.

As a ‘modern auction’, there’s a 28-day leeway for exchange, says O’Connor, with another 28 days to closing, so it will allow time to get the paperwork in order.

There are a host of other properties up for auction in the Rochestown Park Hotel on the same date — but only one with the singular, outstanding qualities of The Lookout.

Verdict: Quite simply, a gem. www.munsterpropertyauction.ie  for further details.