Trading Up: Snave, Bantry €450,000

The site and the setting are the star appeal in the case of 

It comes on 20 acres of rushy land, running down to a shingle beach at the water’s edge on an inlet off Bantry Bay, where the Coomhola river finds its ocean outlet.

Easily reached from Bantry and Glengarriff (it’s half-way between them, on the N71/Wild Atlantic Way, and just over an hour from the city and airport), the existing dwelling is an old-style, two-bed farmhouse.

But now the site “would make a magnificent setting for a new dwelling, subject to planning permission,” says estate agent James Crowley, based in Cork.

He guides at in excess of €450,000, and has had a steady trickle of viewers who are charmed by the potential.

The 20 acres, with house in its midst, slopes to the south and towards the extensive run of shoreline, onto the Gulf Stream-warmed waters.

The area, a noted beauty spot, is already home to some quite spectacular private and second homes (writers Zadie Smith and poet Nick Laird have recently bought near Bantry, on Sheeps Head) some with views, some with water-frontage, but not too many have the cosseting privacy of 20 surrounding acres.

VERDICT: Deserves a special dwelling. Planners will insist on high design standards.

Size: 72 sq m (750 sq ft)

Bathrooms: 1

Bedrooms: 2

BER: G