House of the Week: Out in the wild West of Cork in gorgeous Glengarriff
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Glengarriff, West Cork |
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€430,000 |
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Bedrooms |
4 |
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Bathrooms |
3 |
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BER |
C3 |
The couple selling Rowan, on its own private, wooded, and nature-friendly grounds above West Cork’s Glengarriff intended it to be “our forever home" when they moved here around 2007, retiring to the sea, and putting down fresh roots for themselves, for their show dogs, and putting down future tree roots also, in a now maturing orchard.
They fully embraced their coastal lifestyle, making friends with neighbours, and staying very close to the people they bought 1970s- built Rowan from, after they had built closeby.
Bedding in, they got to know others through golf — such as the late Maureen O’Hara, who was a doyenne of this Wild Atlantic Way beauty spot — and they bought a small boat for fishing, and kept a mooring in the harbour for regular sorties.
They added a bit too to Rowan, which is a family-friendly mix of a property, with a one-bed self-contained section for when adult children and grandchildren call, able to stay separate from the main good-size three-bed bungalow home on its sloping two-acre site with garage/boathouse, polytunnel, and orchard.
Put on too was a side sunroom by a patio for the very best of harbour and hinterland views to the south-east, and it all became the home they had hoped for, when the last met them, as they were selling their suburban city home at the market’s very peak.
More recent twists, however, threw a health-related spanner into their retirement life. They have had to move back closer to Cork city for support services, and they have bought a new home near Cobh, one at least near the water, and a familiar view for them, as one of the couple had worked for 40 years in Irish Steel on Haulbowline before getting to retire.
Last year, they put Rowan set in the hills above Glengarriff up for sale to facilitate their move to Cobh, with an initial guide of €475,000. Then, as luck has had it for us all, Covid-19 struck, and their property has been on the market for three lockdowns, and the asking price has been reduced to €430,000 as 2021 prepares to come out of the traps.
Rowan’s owners have been unable to get down to it of late, due to the various restrictions: in fact, they have not yet either been able to visit the public park now being fashioned on Haulbowline, in plain tantalising sight of Cobh’s hills and streets, practically on their doorstep, but out of bounds due to a pesky pandemic.
The Bantry-based selling agent of their much-loved Glengarriff home Rowan, Denis Harrington, is now also hoping for a spring lift in interest and viewing activity once permitted by Government and people can move outside a 5km radius, even within their county.
However, it has got several elements that will lure interest from outside of the Cork market and will prove tempting to lifestyle relocators especially.
Two acres of ground will occupy the fittest of gardeners, plantspersons, and veg growers, and there is a polytunnel here ready to yield 2021 crops, as well as garage/workshop, boathouse, and wood store.
The couple planted lots of fruit trees, including old apple varieties, crab apples, Bramleys, plum trees, and even damsons, and leave much of the garden in a nature-friendly wildflower state, full of wild buttercups and flag iris, only cutting swathes of the grass in September.
There are many native oaks and hardwood species, rowan trees line some of the boundary, and cattle, sheep, and lambs come grazing at one boundary too, despite a setting just 2kms from Glengarriff.
The house itself is in very good overall condition, with a recently fitted kitchen, adjacent breakfast room, utility, a 21’ by 12’ main living room with mountain views, book shelves, terrace/patio access, and a multi-fuel stove.
The main family bathroom has a new shower, and one of the three bedrooms has an en suite shower room/WC too, while there’s a 28’ by 12’ upgraded attic/loft, used as a study/home office and with further potential.
One of the later additions is the 27’ by 14’ sun room, with vaulted pine-boarded ceilings and long views down to the Glengarriff harbour (where there is a boat mooring which is going with this house sale) and islands, as well as woodland and mountain vistas.
Compact and stunningly-set Glengarriff is rightly prized in property terms, with no fewer than 20 house sales at over €400,000 along in the past decade, including the late Maureen O’Hara’s Lugdine Park and Glengarriff Castle in the multi-million euro price category.
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