Fulfill your Fantasy Island dream at €245,000 Dursey home
Bungalow for sale on Dursey Island,
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Dursey Island, West Cork |
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€245,000 |
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Size |
126 sq m (1356 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
3 |
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Bathrooms |
1 |
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BER |
D1 |
IF island-life drama was your bag as a kid, you’ll be stoked by the notion of buying your very own island home. You’ll be even more stoked by the prospect of getting there by cable car. This is how they roll at magnificent Dursey Island, permanent population about two, off the rugged Beara Peninsula’s western-most tip, c150km from Cork City.
Homes on the six sq km island almost never come up for sale. In the last dozen years, just two were sold, going by the Property Price Register.
“Nothing on the island has come up for sale for a very long time,” says Olivia Hanafin of Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill. She’s handling the latest market arrival, a three-bed dormer bungalow, one kilometre west of the cable car, in the island village of Ballynacallagh.
It’s a unique opportunity for the romantics who hanker for Enid Blyton-style adventure in their lives, if not for themselves, then at least for their kids. Or for those who fancy living off-grid. It’s an opportunity too for anyone seeking bona fide solitude in an area of formidable natural beauty, dominated by lofty cliffs, underpinned by a rugged coastline.
Dursey Island, one of seven inhabited islands off the west coast of Cork, is 6.5km in length and 1.5km in width, with a raised central spine, some open bog and a patchwork of fields. It has proved particularly attractive to contemplative German and Dutch buyers over the years, and although there isn’t a glut of holiday homes, those that are there tend to be owned by overseas buyers.
The agent describes the bungalow’s location as “sheltered and sunny” in a part of the island where there’s a handful of other homes. It’s easily accessible, she says, via the regular services of Ireland’s only cable car, which makes the 374m trip across Dursey Sound in seven and a half minutes.
An estimated 22,000 people pay to use the cable car every year, of whom an estimated 16,500 stay in accommodation on the island or in the local area.
Anyone planning to stay for more than a day would need to bring provisions from the mainland as there isn’t a shop on the island. There isn’t a pub or restaurant either.
Fáilte Ireland-backed plans by Cork County Council for a €10m visitor centre on the island and a new dual cable car system were approved by An Bord Pleanála, but subsequently quashed by the High Court after Friends of the Irish Environment sought a judicial review in 2022. Had the development gone ahead, 80,000 visitors would have been permitted to visit the island each year. An Taisce opposed the plan saying it would adversely impact the island and Beara Peninsula.
Ms Hanafin expects the home she is selling — a modern bungalow which was once a traditional farmhouse — to attract overseas attention and she thinks it more than likely that it will be bought as a holiday home “although you’ll have the occasional buyer who would consider living there fulltime,” she says.
The house is simply and comfortably laid out, a cosy, characterful home with double glazed windows, solid fuel stove in the living area, and timber and tile floors.
Outside, a gravel courtyard area and some lawn surround the house. There’s also a small storage shed within the grounds.
Ms Hanafin says the house was extended, rewired, and replumbed. “It doesn’t need work,” she says.
The views are to die for, she adds, out over the wild Atlantic, as dramatic a seascape as you could wish for. The island is dotted with antiquities, from standing stones, to an early monastery to a signal station from the Napoleonic era. It’s also famous for its selection of bird species and for its 14km loop walk, part of the Wild Atlantic Way touring route.
A genuinely unique opportunity. Overseas buyer seems likely.
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