Selling sunsets? It's gotta be golden Glandore in West Cork for €1.5m

High-end neighbouring homes give a touch of St Tropez to aptly-named Riviera Terrace

The Money Shot: Seaview, Glandore does what it says on the nameplate

Glandore, West Cork
€1.5 million
Size	125 sq m (1,350 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	3
BER	D1

THERE aren’t too many Cork addresses where you could pay €1.5m for a home, and still not be quite in the same league as your neighbours. Such is the case, however, at Seaview, Glandore where homes routinely sell for millions — if not multi-million euro sums — and then get even more lavished upon them.

Seaview has high-end contemporary  neighbours to one side, and a graceful pair of semis from an earlier era on the other by Glandore's best viewing point and bars/restaurants

The hill-set home Seaview, at the winsomely-titled Riviera Terrace in the West Cork golden honeyed and moneyed setting, came for sale over the holiday period for its long-time owners, with estate agent Maeve McCarthy, whose firm Charles P McCarthy had a bit of form in the locale.

Glandore seen from €3.4m Stone Hall 

She sold the period, Georgian Glandore beauty Stone Hall last year for a recorded €3.4m, having previously secured a recorded €5.7m for Kilfinnan Castle in 2019.

Glandore set: Kilfinnan Castle (sold €5.7m) , bottom of picture, with Tony O'Reilly's former home (sold €1.5m) at top. File pic from 2014 by Denis Scannell

Seaview's neighbours have water access

Before that, she sold Violet Cottage, an architect-owned rebuild on Riviera Terrace back in 2014 in a low-key sale, to Irish property maestro Stephen Vernon (ex Green Property), who bought for €1.65m.

Second next door to Seaview, Violet Cottage had been rebuilt by architect Mary Donohoe, got significant exposure in magazines and journals and — on buying — keen sailor, Mr Vernon told the Irish Examiner “if Ireland has a Riviera, it’s West Cork. And, if there’s a St Tropez in West Cork it’s Glandore, and I think I’ve just bought the nicest house and setting in Glandore.”

Roadside entrance to Seaview gives little away as to  what's on the other side

Others might beg to differ, such as the owners of Bar Na Don, the considerably just-refashioned and far larger home set right between Seaview and Violet Garden.

Bar na Don was a mid-1900s cottage rebuilt over 25 years ago by TV’s Carol Vorderman and her then partner journalist Des Kelly, and they sold it in 2005 for a hefty €2.5m.

One of the two terraces at Seaview 

Buyer of Bar na Don back then was serial Irish tech entrepreneur Ray Nolan and his wife Siobhan, who’d sold one of his startups, Hostelworld.com, for a reported net profit of €100m.

Two years ago, the Nolans fought for and finally got planning permission via JE Keating & Co consultants to extend and significantly alter Bar na Don which at the time had a reported 4,000+ sq ft area after a first iteration makeover by architect Paul Keogh.

They went down, and down, into the steep, almost cliff-like site and now have rooms on as many as five levels according to Cork County Council planning files, with just one, the entry level, appreciated from the public road which it sits right alongside.

Seaview's steep setting

To really appreciate the scale, you have to see it from the water, or from the air, such as in drone images currently online as Seaview comes for sale.

Will Seaview now also see future or further construction activity? Or, will it just be bought as is, and appreciated for its west and south eye on the harbour, the coming and goings for craft and trawlers to Union Hall, the moorings for pleasure craft, Dragon yachts, and the notorious rocks and islets at the harbour mouth entrance, entrance, Adam and Eve?

Lots of wood inside

Right now, it’s a 125 sq m (c 1,350 sq ft) three-bed home, with bedrooms and living rooms at both of its (current) two levels, as well as sun terraces/decks, and there’s exterior side access to the lower ground external areas from the road level (the neighbouring Bar na Don and Violet Cottage havecreated their own water/harbour access down steps to seasonally operable mooring/diving spots).

Internally, a spiral staircase connects the two levels, with lots of pine sheeting visible, expposed beams and decor is lifted by a curated art and ceramics collection, along with some old pine furniture, while the upper level dining area has a double-height apex window.

Chi-chi seting

Apart from its chi-chi neighbours to its sea side, Seaview is set just next door to two period era semi-detached houses (left on main pic, above) which start off Riviera Terrace, close to the upmarket gift shop, Wilds, near the seasonally thriving Hayes Bar and the Glandore Inn, which both have outdoor seating and dining on the waterside of the road: they give diners a tiny taste of the views which Riviera Terrace occupants can enjoy night and day, 24/7, in all weathers.

There’s a third bar, Casey’s just up the road by the access point down to a bathing spot, a tiny cove which all but disappears at full tided. In the other direction is the pier, home to a sailing club, the former Marine Hotel, and holiday apartments, currently up for sale.

VERDICT: An easily kept home in one of the southwest’s most renowned and popular beauty spots, half way between Clonakilty and Skibbereen, off the N71. Petite St Tropez, writ small, on the Wild Atlantic Way.