A tidy scenic island shelter in Baltimore Harbour, West Cork

The chance to own a tidy slice of a scenic West Cork island Reenaroga, with bridge access, near Baltimore, has come to market.

Sat, 07 May, 2016 - 01:00

Tommy Barker

Baltimore Harbour, West Cork, €555,000

Size: 25 acres

Bedrooms: 4

Bathrooms: 3

BER: Pending

And, for the €550,000 asking price, new owners will get the land with stony outcrops, a good-sized four-bed dormer home with sun room, and some old stone buildings, including the remnants of a pre-Famine cottage.

Billed as a residential holding by Skibbereen estate agent Charles P McCarthy, this plot of (is)land and property will be bought as much by the heart as by a business or farming head: It’s scenic, has views southwards over Baltimore Harbour and its beacon, over Roaringwater Bay and out along Carbery’s Hundred Isles’, and can be reached from Cork City and airport in about 90 minutes. Yet, it’s sort of a world apart.

Mr McCarthy is selling for an overseas owner, and the mix includes a comfortable but decoratively dated four-bed bungalow, with three overhead bedrooms plus bathroom and one en suite ground floor bedroom plus two reception rooms.

It’s set in a sheltered spot on the c 25 acres, of which he says about 15 acres is arable, and the rest is rough grazing and some forestry.

The latter will be handy, as the house has a stove in its living room, plus a Stanley in the kitchen, so fuel for free, bar the labour of chopping and hauling.

There’s lane access off a private road, and while the island at one stage had a population of up to 800, now it’s dwindled to less than 100 (with some low-key architectural holiday home hideaways) despite the utter convenince of having a causeway bridge as access from the main Skibbereen-Baltimore road.

Skib’s a 10 minute drive away, Baltimore and its top bars and eating spots is even closer with marine and sailing facilities, and there’s easy access to the waters of Roaringwater Bay.

It’s along super-quiet island lanes, with a nine-mile loop walk around the island from Lag Bridge recently eulogised by writer Damien Enright in these pages for its duck and estuarine bird life adding “I can think of few more pleasant walks.”