Serious tog value at actor's West Cork home
Dún an Durrus? English actress Tracy Reed lived for many years in West Cork's Durrus, where she died in 2012. She's pictured here in character as Miss Scott dressed in a bikini on the set of Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film 'Dr. Strangelove'.
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Durrus, West Cork |
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€369,000 |
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Size |
185 sq m (1,995 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
3 |
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Bathrooms |
3 |
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BER |
E2 |
YOU never quite know who’s who in an Irish village – and that’s much the joy of it all.
Take a West Cork village like Durrus, for example: here, a property sale of the charming Victorian-era home Millrace House unearths links to British acting royalty, to Anglo Irish aristocrats, and even to a former mistress or ‘lady friend’ of the Prince of Wales, before he became Edward Vlll, later abdicating the English throne to marry Wallis Simpson and live in the US.
The link between a low-key Irish bolthole and the international high life and the world of 20th-century cinema is gratis of the late British actor Tracy Reed, who bought this property 35 years ago, initially as a holiday home, and she later moved to live her full-time after her acting career, and after four marriages.
Reed, a stepdaughter of director Sir Carol Reed who won an Oscar for Oliver! was a granddaughter of Freda Dudley Ward, Edward Vlll’s former lover. Reed's first marriage was to another British actor, Edward Fox, part of a highly regarded family acting dynasty including Robert Fox, James Fox and nephew Lawrence Fox.
Tracy Reed’s filmography includes work with Peter Sellers in the first Pink Panther film 'A Shot in the Dark', but is best recalled for her role as Miss Scott in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 cinematic masterpiece, 'Dr Strangelove.'
Also titled 'How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb,' 'Dr Stranglove'was a black comedy about the Cold War.
Cold? She was the film’s only female actor, and spent almost all of the shoot wearing just a bikini, cast as the secretary and mistress of General Buck Turgidson played by George C Scott.
Tracy Reed died in 2012, and her latter days' Irish home, Millrace House with roots back to Irish Famine times and old corn mills, was left to her daughter Lucy Fox, from her first marriage to Edward Fox.
It’s now being by Lucy Fox, who has her own Irish associations. Her formal title is the Viscountess Gormanston, after marrying (Jenico) Nicholas Dudley Preston, the 17th Viscount Gormanston in 1997.
His title as a British hereditary peer – with the subtitle Ireland’s Premier Viscount - was linked to Gormanstown Castle in Co Meath, with his family in Ireland since the 15th Century.
The Gormanstons no longer are associated with the Co Meath castle, and there’s now a Franciscan-run boarding school there.
Shortly, Durrus may be gone from them too: it’s for sale on 0.75 of an acre, with a €369,000 AMV quoted by Sherry FitzGerald O'Neill's principal, Ray O’Neill.
Lucy, Viscountess Gormanston, says that after the death of her mother Tracy Reed “Millrace House was left to me and all the family has loved spending time there as, when the sun shines in Ireland there is nowhere more stunning and this part of West Cork is no exception.
“My father, Edward Fox, loved this part of the world. He and Tracy remained good friends and he loved to visit her. As you drive towards the West of Ireland you get a feeling of having truly escaped from the increasing demands of modern life – having said that the Wifi is considerably faster and more efficient than in central London!”
After her own many years of connection, she endorses local attractions beyond the sea and Wild Atlantic Way scenery, with Durrus at the head of two peninsulas, the Mizen and Sheep's Head, where Irish royalty Graham Norton has a home in Ahakista.
And, perhaps with an eye to a buyer for Millrace House coming from outside the immediate Durrus catchment, she also flags attractions such as Blue Flag beach at Barley Cove, as well as sustenance such as O’Sullivan’s Bar in the village, the Fish Kitchen restaurant, Blair’s Cove, and Michelin-starred The Chestnut in Ballydehob.
Then, there’s “the delightful market in Bantry town on Friday mornings with stalls selling everything from old books to stout boots. But, I go for the food, delicious local produce in abundance and, if you get there early enough, you can buy Irish mozzarella which is the best I have ever tasted.”
In more prosaic property terms, Millrace House, is a quite modest country-style Victorian period, traditional-style residence, of almost 2,000 sq ft, with three bedrooms, three bathrooms one with lots of character and roll-top cast iron bath.
There’s a large living room and an almost equally large kitchen/diner (each about 30’ by 12’) under a pitched roof, complete with commercial-style range cooker….calling all foodies?
The grounds, up to three-quarters of a village acre, have sun trap patios, mature specimen trees, shrubs, and flowers in abundance, with lots of privacy and outbuildings.
In terms of its own roots, the name comes from a man-made mill race, diverted from the local river, the Four Mile Water, which powered the water wheel of Durrus’s original corn mill.
: Bring your togs and bikinis?
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