Blue Flag beach and boardwalk frontage at €600k 16-acre Redbarn property mix gets sale greenlight

Rare to get a 'blank canvas'  property with 250 metres frontage to a boardwalk and Blue Flag beach

Redbarn property mix on 16 acres is guided at 600,00 by estate agent Brian Gleeson

Redbarn, Youghal
€600,000
Size	215 sq m (2,300 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	3
BER	E1

IF ever a property’s time had come to find new owners and uses, it must be this offer, at Redbarn, near Youghal by the sea.

The East Cork property mix, of house, outbuildings and  sheds, as well as 16 acres of pasture, has just had a 1.2 kilometre long boardwalk put in place along its hundreds of feet of beach frontage boundary, while a new amenity 23 kilometre Greenway is due to come on track close-by too, by the end of 2022.

Redbarn's  boardwalk

The two amenity features, boardwalk and greenway, will add even more to the profile of popular Redbarn, which already is home to an array of coastal attractions and facilities, as well as important reed beds at Ballyvergan marsh for migrant birds.

They come to as our own migrant nation has come to embrace staycations, enforced by the impacts of a global pandemic, with Irish seaside holidays very much on the crest of a wave, while  the country has seemingly taken with gusto to the Great Outdoors.

Sky and sea and land at  Redbarn

That popularity is in clear evidence in summer 2021, with the entire Blue Flag beach-blessed strip from Youghal to Redbarn and further afield thrumming with activity, caravan and camper van parks bustling.

And at Redbarn’s hub is the Quality Hotel, and dozens of self-catering houses, served by a leisure centre with pool, gym and spa, and with outdoor dining cabins currently serving up meals and takeaways during Covid-19.

“Where else would you get a property like this, right on a Blue Flag beach, with so much ground and so much potential,” asks auctioneer Brian Gleeson, of this fresh-to-market summer sale, adding “it’s a blank canvas for someone to do something very special with.”

He’s selling a substantially renovated detached older-style dwelling amid fields of pasture adjoining the Quality Hotel, at Redbarn and back open since the start of June, and with daytime beach fun overseen by a lifeguard service to boot.

Already getting huge traction is the attraction of the brand new boardwalk, a raised walkway on quality hardwood and frames by the beach, running from Claycastle by the town of Youghal to Redbarn.

It’s already been embraced by walkers, children on scooters, and buggy pushers, giving loads of options for socially distant swims and picnics: there’s so much beach, even on a busy day you can maintain hundreds of feet between you and the next family having a day out on the expanses of sand.

Now, you can put down deeper roots here too.

Redbarn opportunity...but who'll do what with it?

Estate agent Brian Gleeson guides this ‘blank canvas’ chance at €600,000, and says it’s wide open for any sort of new uses, either as an upgraded private house with even further scope, or as a possible tourism and outdoor activities related base.

Pod holidays, anyone?

This was a personal project being worked on piecemeal by a very well-regarded Youghal builder, the late David O’Callaghan, who passed away before bringing this renovation to completion.

At its core is an extended former farmhouse in a courtyard cluster with bone-dry block-built outbuildings. The house itself is two-storey, with a hipped roof, now about 2,300 sq ft or 215 sq m with services, with large ground floor areas and three first floor bedrooms, much of if ready for ‘second-fix’ finishing off and commissioning.

Or, a new owner might want to make further and more radical changes, subject to planning permission….such as an upside-down layout with enlarged first-floor living area, and lots of glass for the miles of sea vista, from Ram Head to the east to Capel Island by Knockadoon towards the west.

Baywatch: Redbarn's lifeguard station

There’s  250 metres  of beach frontage with the private property, which has a pretty, short tree-lined avenue with old stone pillars linking the courtyard to the beach and brand-new boardwalk, with a longer approach avenue from the road into Rebarn creating a sense of arrival.

Redbarn property mix with Quality Hotel and self-catering houses in the background

And, due to arrive in 2022 in this Youghal hinterland are two significant events for an increasingly fitness-aware country. There's the next, second  Youghal Ironman event in August 2022, along with the country’s next and latest Greenway, a 23 km long walk/cycle route along the old rail line corridor from Midleton to Youghal, the so-called MY route, passing Mogeely and Killeagh.

The regular rail service stopped in 1960, with sporadic summer excursions to Youghal continuing up to the 1980s after which time the line was abandoned, only for its time to come around once more, for bikers and walkers.

VERDICT: Make beach tracks to Redbarn?