Beautiful seaside views at home in Union Hall, West Cork
The Cork coastline gets all the more rugged, and ragged, the further west you travel, with its far-flung peninsular fingers among its most dramatic stretches.
The shoreline from the Galley Head lighthouse to the Beacon by Baltimore is where it starts to get rough and ready, the sea bed and rocky protrusions can be rife with hazards to boats, yet its allure is just short of magical too.
One of those special hideaway places that smacks of sanctuary, but still has a bit of frisson, is in and around Rabbit Island and Squince harbour, just west beyond Glandore harbour, and reached by road via Union Hall.
Here, the evocatively titled Ceol Na Mara (‘Song of the Sea’) is freshly listed with agent Micheál Duggan of Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill at €349,000, and that’s down from a €380k ask when first listed with different West Cork auctioneers back in January.
A modern home on an acre, at a townland called Cooscroneen (about two miles from Union Hall), it’s a mix of south-facing dormer and traditional two-storey outlines, has over 1,800 sq ft in all. It has one of its three first floor bedrooms en suite, with a solid fuel, contemporary-style stove/insert in its main living room, in a tiled hearth, helping to earn this property a good B3 BER.
In addition, there’s a kitchen/dining/living room with pine units, utility, and guest WC with shower, plus study to a rear corner of the house. All three first floor bedrooms are doubles.
Outside is a good sized detached garage/workshed, and gardens have been landscaped with some beds raised up on old rail sleepers. Mr Duggan says it’s as equally suitable for holiday home, permanent home, or retirement home use, near Myross and Squince’s safe shingle bay which is sheltered from the worst of the westerlies; the area’s dotted with islands, while Skibbereen town is about eight miles distant.
“The sea views, the convenient water access plus the warmth and charm in this most beautiful of areas makes this a unique opportunity to purchase a West Cork Home,” says Mr Duggan, reckoning this home may now come back on the radar of more home hunters after its new listing with price drop.
Parts of West Cork with as much rugged appeal can be two hours and more from Cork city and airport, but Ceol na Mara’s a shorter, more manageable spin.
