Graball you can of this 'Vista' Cork harbour beach hut for €225k

A short step to the sea, and Crosshaven, this tiny beach home  delivers big on views of the sea, reports Tommy Barker

Stairway to heaven: Tucked away nicely in the slope by a beach Bella Vista might facilitate a fairly radical bit of architectural imagination and even a stepped extension.

Crosshaven, Co Cork
€225,000
Size	60 sq m (640 sq ft)
Bedrooms	2
Bathrooms	1
BER	G

THE next down step is the sea or even the ferry to France as it cruises by when you reach the end of the road at Cork harbour’s Graball Bay and fetch up with your bucket and spade at this diminutive beach house, up for grabs itself.

Remember when? Enjoying the swimming regatta at Graball Bay, Cork Harbour. 

Rather grandly, but entirely appropriately named Bella Vista, this 640 sq ft home, a mile from Crosshaven and looking directly over the beach to the sea, carries a €225,000 AMV, and you just can’t get closer to the water or have more unobstructed views.

There’s a 180-degree harbour span with regular passing marine traffic to observe, reckons Gerard O’Callaghan of Coldwell Banker Real Estate as he launches Bella Vista on the open market. 

It's just a mile or so from Crosshaven, and just around the headland from Camden Fort, one of a number of little communities of full-time and holiday homes huddled into the hilly folds at coves like Graball, Fennells Bay, and Church Bay.

The tiny sweets and ices shop traded in summer months right alongsideBella Vista.

Your view of Cork Harbour from Bella Vista, Graball Bay.

Originally home to some old 19th century thatched fisherman's cottages, and later in the mid-1900s with the near-ubiquitous  'Ford box' homes made from old car part crates from Cork's Ford factory, there may now be up to 100 houses, little and large, around Graball Bay. They gather in clusters, all hugging one another around the edges of fields cliff paths, whilst Bella Vista must have the most direct beach access of all.

The public steps to the part sandy/part shingle beach and outcrops of red sandstone rocks run right alongside this postage-stamp-sized property and its equally modest in scale site, in three neat tiers with a retaining wall at the lower end.

The view to Roches Point.

In previous decades, a tiny sweets and ices shop traded in summer months right alongside, and older folk will recall not just the shop, but glory days of summer swimming regattas when the entire coastline here attracted hundreds of spectators.

With the current resurgence in year-round sea swimming, and demonstrably popular in nearby Myrtleville and Fountainstown, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility of a revival, perhaps?

A strong right arm would lob a stone into the sea from Bella Vista’s end of cul de sac beach steps setting, prompting selling agent Ger O’Callaghan to remark “there can be nothing more seductive and alluring in real estate than a beach house.” 

A house in Graball Bay in Crosshaven, while  undergoing renovation:  parts of its old Ford boxes construction can still be seen inside.

Likely to date to the early to mid-1900s, the 640 sq ft cabin-sized Graball house with a wee porch entrance with a tiled floor holds two small bedrooms, one with exterior access, a shower room, utility/store, and a side-by-side kitchen and living room with a stove, with windows facing the sea.

The view from this Ram’s Head location is direct across the mouth of the harbour to White Bay, past the Turbot bank and shipping channels, with Roches Point to the right and Cobh’s Glenmore in the back of the wider harbour expanse.

The splendid houses which replaced the old wooden huts and railway carriages in Graball bay in Crosshaven as seen from Roches Point

Despite its age, and the low-pitch felt roof, it appears in pretty good order: Coldwell Banker’s Mr O’Callaghan says “it’s presented in great heart by the current owner but would also benefit from further investment with great scope to redevelop and extend what is a wonderful property.

“The location and views are simply a joy to behold, making Bella Vista a rare gem, if not unique,” he adds.

The site’s slope and tiers might facilitate a fairly radical bit of architectural imagination and even a stepped extension, but it could be a challenge given the pedestrian access, and the necessary presence of a septic tank: cantilever, or home on stilts, anyone?

The Price Register records a very wide diversity and span of values over the past 10 years, from as low as €30,000 for a shack to €394,000 for one called Hill House in 2014.

VERDICT: Grab the opportunity while it presents itself?