All aboard: Slice of Kerry history on the line

Tommy Barker on the sale of a former railway/station master’s cottage in Tom Crean country

There's a history of thirst-quenching, for human beings and for trains, almost on the doorstep of this Kerry home by Annascaul.

Located at Anagap, Annascaul, it was formerly a railway/station master’s cottage for the Tralee to Dingle light rail service, which ran with mixed fortunes from the 1890s to the 1950s.

It was a spot where trains could pass one another on the single line, as well as being where the steam engines could take on water.

Today, while the c 30 mile long rail line has long been ripped up (it ended its last decades carrying only livestock), that link to bygone times is recalled still on the roadway opposite this quite charming and old-style ‘rescued’ cottage, in the presence of a large water tank on a stone support with the Anagap address proudly written on it.

Dingle auctioneer John Diony O’Connor is now selling The Old Railway Cottage, quoting a €200,000 guide price for the three-bed house used as a holiday home, and while an offer of €180,000 has already been made, it hasn’t been accepted.

The cottage is on a roadside site of a quarter acre of gardens and lawns, and is within a walk of Annascaul village, with the nearest pub being The South Pole, which has its own historic significance thanks to its family connections to the renowned polar explorer Tom Crean, who opened the inn after he retired from the Royal Navy, and epic adventures, in 1920.

The auctioneer says this 19th century cottage is “a most peaceful retreat and well worth viewing,” close to walks, cycle routes, beaches (Inch is seven kms away) and Dingle is a 15 minute spin... by car.

VERDICT

Slice of Kerry history.

Annascaul, Kerry

€200,000

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 2

BER: G