Going with the flow in glorious Glengarriff

Tommy Barker reports on a sea-front contemporary, five-bedroomed residence in glorious Glengarriff.

Derryconnery Glengarriff €645,000

Sq m 181 (1,958 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 5

Bathrooms: 4

BER: C1

Best Feature: It’s Glengarriff

THERE’s sure to be a seal of approval for the setting of this West Cork home — it’s in Glengarriff, facing out on its own rocky inlet to the harbour and to the extraordinary Garinish Island, a stretch of Gulf-stream warmed waters much favoured by the bay’s many resident seals.

In fact, the waters have more recently also been favoured by the country’s growing band of distance swimmers, who reckon the five kilometre swim around the 37-acre horticultural wonder that is Garinish to be one of Ireland’s safest and most spectacular island circumnavigation swims.

So, is it only a matter of time before the selling agents of waterfront properties like this stunningly-sited Derryconnery house advise “just an hour’s swim from shops and services?” Quite possibly; in the interim, be advised, this almost-2,000 sq ft home is a mile and a half from Glengarriff... by road.

There’s hardly a poor section of coastline anywhere around this stretch of Co Cork’s wooded shoreline: it’s home to various mansions, bothies and bungalows, and there’s even a Jurassic Park lookalike bamboo park.

Just now, the sale of actress Maureen O’Hara’s Irish home Lugdine, which she’s used for more than 40 years, is in the final sale throes, making c €1.8 million with its indented 45 acres of wooded coastline via agents Sherry FitzGerald (see also separate Skibbereen waterfront house feature p13.)

Lugdine’s purchaser is understood to be UK-based, and overseas/Sterling buyers are currently to the fore for the south-west foreshore offers.

And, nearby at Ballylickey, a shoreline house called Waverly which was the long-time holiday home of former Foreign Affairs Minster Peter Barry and his late wife Margaret has now been sold by agent John D Sullivan.

Wonderful Waverly is a 3,300 sq ft timber chalet of style and substance, on 1.5 acres, and it shows on the Price Register as a May sale, at €505,000. It was bought by a French businessman, based in Kinsale, it’s understood.

Agent Micheal Duggan of Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill’s Skibbereen office bills this Derryconnery offer as “a sea-front, contemporary five-bedroom residence on two acres of grounds, in a sheltered setting.” Those grounds are landscaped, with good tree cover and shelter from the sea.

Internally, the house has five bedrooms, with an en suite one at each of the two levels, there’s a good living room, kitchen with island and double ceramic sink plus casual dining area, and a lofty sun-room type add-on, with overhead striped awning to be rolled out on sunny days.

And, perhaps they do get finer days down here by the Gulf-warmed waters, as there’s even a hammock between some mature trees in a waterside copse.

There’s a utility also, but the real storage coup is the large work/garden shed to the side of the house, and overall condition inside and outside is tip-top, says Mr Duggan.

Best asset is, of course, the grounds and setting by a sheltered inlet, with the famed Italianate gardens and arboretum at Garinish Island just out in the bay, all favoured by sailors and kayakers and swimmers and seals.

Then, there are mountains, lakes, forestry, walks, hikes, shops, cafes, bars and galleries, including the almost Eden-like Ewe Sculpture Gardens, all on the doorstep.

VERDICT: Bring on the sunshine.