Maureen O'Hara's former West Cork home sells for €2.8m

Lugdine Park at Glengarriff was owned by Maureen O'Hara for 45 years. Picture: Charles P McCarthy

The former West Cork coastal home of flame-haired Irish Hollywood icon Maureen O’Hara has been sold once more, for around €2.8m, netting its UK-based owner well over €1m in profit since he bought it in 2015.

Waterfronting Lugdine Park at Glengarriff was owned by the late, great actress for 45 years, after O’Hara and her third husband airline owner Charles Blair fell for the spot in 1970 — he loved it because he could land his seaplane beside the property.

Maureen O'Hara (pictured here in 1952) moved to Lugdine Park full time in 2005, becoming a familiar face in the locality after a long career.

Charles Blair died in a plane crash in 1978 and Dublin-born Maureen O’Hara continued to use the early 1900s, five-bed, 3,700 sq ft dormer property as a holiday home.

O’Hara's third husband, airline owner Charles Blair, loved the property because he could land his seaplane beside the property.

She moved to Lugdine Park full time in 2005, becoming a familiar face in the locality after a long career when her face was known globally from movies like How Green was my Valley, Jamaica Inn, numerous films by John Ford and with co-starring roles alongside John Wayne, from westerns to the legendary The Quiet Man, filmed in the West of Ireland.

When Maureen O’Hara decided to sell her beloved Beara peninsula home in 2014 to live with her grandson in Idaho she said of Glengarriff that “it’s a lovely village filled with wonderful people who are so proud of this magical piece of heaven". O’Hara died in October 2015, aged 97 years, having received a Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 2014.

Lugdine Park in Glengarriff. Picture: Charles P McCarthy

Scene-stealing Lugdine sold in 2015 for €1.6m and appears to have changed little in the interim ownership. Two other neighbouring houses in adjoining Dromgarriff woods sold last year, for €1.46m and €1.57m, while the part-restored Glengarriff Castle nearby on 87 acres sold in 2020 for c €2.7m, and is undergoing restoration.

Now, Lugdine Park rejoins the top of the leader board for prices in the Beara Peninsula locale, noted as a Wild Atlantic Way beauty spot, blessed by nature and home to the renowned sub-tropical Garnish Island, and a bamboo park.

Scenically-set Lugdine was put up for sale by its UK-based buyers in 2021 with an aspirational €3.8m price tag with agents Charles P McCarthy, and is understood to have sold for sub-€3m.

Lugdine Park in Glengarriff. Picture: Charles P McCarthy

It shows on the Price Register at €2.525m, having previously appeared there in 2015 at €1.382m: the land and islands had an additional value, not reflected in the Register, likely to be at least in excess of €350,000 on top of the officially recorded price.

The Skibbereen-based selling agents McCarthys declined to confirm the details, but indicated the 2023 buyer is also living overseas, and has Irish roots.