Sauna in Costa Brava is one that you can regulate, at hot property near Kenmare

As Europe melts, this spacious, near-Kenmare home is a more temperate option

Costa Brava, Kenmare

Kenmare, Co Kerry
€1 m
Size	316 sq m ( 3,078 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	5
BER	B3

A house called Costa Brava is quite an unexpected find in Kenmare which is famous for being scenic and cosmopolitan but not in any way for its resemblance to the Mediterranean.

But for the Dutch family, who built the spacious five-bed property in the early 2000s and have been holidaying there ever since, it is Costa Brava. “My mother always called it her Costa Brava,” says the owner, who has happy memories of spending sunny childhood holidays there when all his other relatives went to Spain.

His father wanted a second home in Canada but his mother said this was too far and chose Ireland instead, he says explaining that they came to buy a house but fell in love with a scenic coastal site at Kilbaha East, a few km outside Kenmare.

The house which his parents built and his mother called Costa Brava, is stone faced and spacious and includes a one-bed guest apartment and for relaxation, a sauna, a steam room and a high tech shower cabinet.

A well maintained property which has only ever been used as a family holiday home, it was designed with ease of maintenance in mind and has tiled flooring with underfloor heating and a good B3 BER rating.

Large picture windows frame the views which are particularly scenic from the kitchen, the living room, the sunroom and the main upstairs bedroom. One side of the house faces Kenmare Bay and the McGillycuddy Reeks,which can be seen in the distance, while the other has views of Killaha Mountain on Beara.

Almost as surprising as the house’s name, is the presence of several animal heads on the walls of some of the rooms. There’s an antelope head at the top of the stairs and a moose head in the guest apartment while a corridor on the upper floor contains several bear skins. “There’s a story behind every one,’’ says the owner who says that he and his father collected these trophies while hunting on several continents over many years.

Sherry FitzGerald Daly, who sold the site to the Dutch couple back in 2000, are now offering the four-bed house, one bed guest apartment and the 2.2 acre site for a guide price of €1 million.

Accommodation in the main house includes a living room with bookshelves and a black marble fireplace as well as a large open plan kitchen / sunroom/ dining area with painted shaker style units with granite counter tops.

Kitchen

Open plan dining

At ground level there’s also a large en suite bedroom, a utility room and guest WC. The upper floor of the main house has three bedrooms including two en suites and a central one with a large window with scenic views of Kenmare Bay and the mountains beyond.

The 83 sq metre guest apartment can be accessed from the first floor through a passageway which has six skylights and is decorated with bear skins.

The upper floor section of the guest apartment has a living area with views of Killaha Mountain, a bedroom and a bathroom. At ground floor level there’s a kitchen cum living area as well as a sauna room, a steam room, a high tech shower unit and a guest WC.

The 2.2 acre site is mostly lawned with mature trees at one side and at the boundaries and has a large detached stone-faced garage.

Located at Killaha East on the Beara Peninsula, a little over three km from Kenmare, Costa Brava is within half an hours’ drive from Glengarriff.

Auctioneer John Daly says it is attracting interest from Dublin buyers, who continue to be big spenders in the area, as well as Europeans, and Americans “ Spacious properties this close to Kenmare which have both sea views and private grounds are very scarce,” he observes.

VERDICT: Costa Brava with a difference