World voyagers including the legendary Tim Severin landed back safe at €400k West Cork coastal home

Courtmacsherry's The Moorings has a storied history as a safe haven for its intrepid globetrotting previous owners, first Tim Severin, then Dr Miriam Bailey

Sun, 22 May, 2022 - 07:07

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports Pics Niamh Whitty

Courtmacsherry, West Cork
€400,000+
Size	155 sq m (1,668 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	2
BER	D2

NO better place than The Moorings to get your bearings, it would seem.

This charming Courtmacsherry village property has been home to not just one, but two intrepid world travellers over recent decades - one of whom was was the globally recognised writer, documentary maker and voyager, the late Tim Severin.

Author and voyager Tim Severin made his Irish homes at Courtmacsherry, then Timoleague

Set looking out over the harbour waters of sheltered Courtmacsherry, The Moorings is an old-world style mid-terraced home that has a lovely setting, a very large back garden and walls that, if they could talk, would be able to recount the most amazing of overheard adventures.

Owner for the last several decades was Dr Miriam Bailey, an educationalist who also travelled the world under her own steam, starting out with time spent teaching languages and business in Hong Kong in the 1960s, then later working worldwide on education projects for the UN.

Even in later years, she continued to travel to places such as Kabul in Afghanistan, returning laden with kilims and rugs and more, further mementos of her many decades of travel for work and pleasure.

Family members say she divided her final years between Canada and Courtmacsherry, and she passed away aged in her early 80s in Montreal, just prior to Christmas 2021.

She’d always been an admirer of the life and times of the legendary Tim Severin too, which may well have encouraged her own decision to buy his Courtmac base when he decided to move the short distance to Timoleague and Argideen.

A number of Severin’s most remarkable expeditions were dreamed up and researched here at The Moorings, and written up later on his return from often lengthy and life-threatening trips and adventures in some of the world’s most far-flung spots, and most dangerous seas.

His travels included – as will be best-recalled by Irish folk – voyaging across the Atlantic in a leather curragh for The Brendan Voyage, recreating the journey to the New World originally taken by St Brendan the Navigator; in the Sinbad Voyage, he captained a replica Arab dhow from Muscat to China. He made other epic journeys in replica ships, including sailing a raft made of bamboo across in the Pacific to see if Chinese sailors may have reached the Americas, and sailing replica galleys to retrace mythological journeys from legends, undertaken by Jason and the Argonauts and Ulysses.

Author and seafarer Tim Severin. Picture: Eamon Ward

Severin (who passed away in 2020 aged 80 years) also made long journeys by other means, such as by horseback, following in the hoof steps of the Crusaders across Europe to Jerusalem, and of Genghis Khan in Mongolia – so, the 40-minute commute to and from Cork city and airport from Courtmacsherry would have been a mere drop in the ocean for him.

Who’ll follow now in the footsteps of fellow travellers Severin and Bailey as the mid-1800s-built The Moorings now comes to the summer 2022 property market?

It’s listed just this week with estate agent Martin Kelleher in nearby Clonakilty, and he guides the character-filled (and book-filled) home at, or from, €400,000.

Noting it has lots of appeal for a cross-section of home hunters, offering permanent full-time and second home options, he says it’s centrally located in the long strip of road through Courtmacsherry, with the bay on the left on entering the village, and a nearby pier offers easy access to boat trips, from sailing dinghies to whale-watching tours.

With quite a wide façade, thanks to an integrated former arch/garage opening offering further upgrade potential, it has over 1,650 sq ft inside, over two levels and all in a very adaptable layout, with options for living and sleeping quarters at both levels inside.

It faces south to the back, with a long garden sloping up away from the patio and a tiered terrace to the rear.

A ground floor bedroom with an adjoining private bathroom was created in just the last year or two as the late owner’s mobility became a concern as she entered her 80s, and above are three further bedrooms, one of them en suite.

There’s also a first-floor sitting room, with two windows overlooking the bay with a stove, wood floor and wood-panelled ceiling, whilst several other first floor rooms also have timbered ceilings, some with low-set windows and overhead Veluxes.

The main bathroom has blue sanitary ware, including a cast iron bath inset into a timber surround for safe, domestic voyages into the shallow blue yonder.

Overall condition is good, says agent Mr Kelleher, especially as it got upgraded very recently in creating the en suite ground floor bedroom, and, now extended to the rear, it has oil central heating, double glazing, and has high-speed satellite broadband for global connectivity.

It’s got a D2 BER, and right of way access via a lane to the east, to the very large back garden and terraces, and on the doorstep are bars, an award-winning guesthouse and food venues aplenty.

The area also has numerous outdoors activities and sporting attractions, from coastal and woodland walks and beaches to boating, angling, and rowing, with a brand new rowing clubhouse recently built by The Point for budding seafarers.

VERDICT: This is a house that has seen the the world brought to its doorstep, literally.