Check out €795k view point in people-watching Schull

Modern home in West Cork had link to a key witness in Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder case

Top of the town: No 11 Ard Chleire, Schull, is priced at €795,000 by agent Martin Swanton

Schull, West Cork
€795,000
Size	3,500 sq ft
Bedrooms	5/6
Bathrooms	4
BER	B3

COMING up now on about 20 years of age in West Cork's Schull (summer home base to leading Irish actor Paul Mescal) is 11 Ard Chleire — a fine detached home whose first owner for a very brief time was local woman and Schull shopkeeper Marie Farrell.

Paul Mescal in Schull for the Fastnet Cork Film Festival 2022. Picture: Johannes Eisele

Ms Farrell was a key witness in the long-running investigation into the death of French woman Sophie Toscan du Plantier and who had placed the key suspect Ian Bailey at Kealfadda bridge the night of the brutal, still-unsolved murder just before Christmas in 1996.

Marie Farrell in 2006

Local resident Ms Farrell later withdrew her testimony identifying the recently-deceased Mr Bailey on that night, alleging Garda coercion: later, in 2014, she testified on Bailey’s behalf.

11 Ard Chleire was built in the early 2000s and was sold to the present owners around 2006

The two later met in Schull during Jim Sheridan’s reconstruction of the crime while shooting a Netflix documentary in 2021, with the late Mr Bailey saying he’d since forgiven Ms Farrell and had ‘buried the hatchet with her’.

As interest in the savage murder case continued to hold huge sway in West Cork, nationally, and internationally in the years after the incident, the family decided to move from Schull as public interest in the minutiae of the case had made life very difficult, Ms Farrell said.

She and her family sold their then-recently built home No 11 in 2006, at what she subsequently said was a substantial financial loss.

Now a very different home after many years in different ownership, altered, upgraded and extended, No 11 was built as one of over two dozen substantial detached homes at Schull’s Ardmanagh.

The property is towards the top of the upmarket scheme, with views towards the Atlantic, Schull harbour, and Cape Clear all available.

No 11’s listed with local estate agent Martin Swanton, who guides the 3,500 sq ft, five/six bedroomed home at €795,000, saying it has been finished to the highest of standards both inside and outside, with extensive parking, and high quality landscaping.

Given that there is up to 30 builds here, all pretty much individual and broadly dormer in style, on sites originally made available via Cork County Council — at prices pitched as “affordable” — it’s almost a surprise to see that only a few have re-sold in the past 10-15 years.

No 2 sold in 2023 for a recorded €600,000, while No 7 sold in 2022 for a reported €490,000.

Auctioneer Mr Swanton describes No 11 as large and substantial, with scope for up to six bedrooms.

There is also a garden room/home office, while other enhancements include an unusual, angular wood-paneled and painted ceiling in the kitchen with spotlights, next to a lofty double height dining area with rich-hued pitch pine ceilings boards on the A-frame, while the room’s gable has two tall, leaded glazed windows, either side of a small stove.

The kitchen is top quality, with a very large island/breakfast bar with sink, services/cooker, and worktops containing a mix of timber and granite.

Appliances are Miele in the main, and there’s an Aga in pride of place in a country style surround with side storage units.

The wood-floored area’s perfect for family gatherings and entertainment, made even more special after the addition of a back wall facing the kitchen island, given over to a series of glazed doors spanning about 13”, which fold and slide back for unimpeded access to an extensive stone paved patio, ringed by drystone walling.

There’s further “indoor/outdoor” connectivity thanks to two sets of French/double doors on either side of the airy dining section.

Quality touches continue into the utility room, with units topped with granite, while laundry and other appliances here are — again — Miele.

There’s a separate front living room with fireplace and bay window, left of the hall.

Also at ground level is a large main en suite bedroom with bay window, and guest WC with shower.

Upstairs, there are up to five more bedrooms, most dormer style and one’s en suite, plus there’s a large hotpress.

No 11 gets a good B3 BER and the house is big enough for pretty much all family sizes, either as a full-time home or as a second/holiday home with rooms enough for seasonal visitors, while the gardens have been professionally landscaped with only small lawn sections so summertime grass cutting will be a breeze.

VERDICT: Summer times now in Schull will be more about spotting actor Paul Mescal, and fellow thespian and Ballydehob West Cork holiday homeowner Saoirse Ronan out and about, now that the area’s most notorious resident Ian Bailey has passed away.