Drop anchor at festivals-blessed Bantry at The Moorings

Bantry has fab festivals of literature, music, walking, botany - why not more for boats, given the charms of Bantry Bay?

One for the high bay rollers: The Moorings Bantry is priced at €1.8m by  Sherry FitzGerald O'Neill/SF Country Homes

Bantry, West Cork
€1.8m
Size	230 sq m (2,450 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	3
BER	D1

BANTRY is humming this weekend with the annual Literary Festival in full swing, coming on the heels of the Chamber Music Festival, but before its Masters of Tradition Festival — in fact, Bantry has many and varied festivals, from walking to botany and partying, throughout the year, but none really to speak of celebrates the waters it is blessed with.

Local boy done good: Graham Norton signing copies of  Forever Home at last year's West Cork Literary Festival.

Some of the country’s most scenic inlets, coves and bays are dotted around Bantry Bay, plus islands, and it has a Blue Way too with marked trails for kayakers and others in boats, plus a marina and clubs. 

But, no marine festival of substance jumps out for those who love the sea and sailing.

Well-anchored The Moorings dates from the 1970s

All set up for those who do love the sea and all things boating is the aptly-named The Moorings, a 1970s-built home done in high-pitched A-frame style on 2.5acres of sheltered ground and gardens with beach, practically alongside Bantry Golf Club, with which it shares a ’70s origins decade.

Interior has character - and scope

And, it’s well-named: The Moorings does, indeed, have a boat mooring, as well as a private slip and beach access, all within a short haul of the increasingly cosmopolitan West Cork town.

Haul away

The Moorings has been half a century in the same family’s ownership, and only now are they casting off, listing their home here in a sheltered setting at the head of an inlet with local agents Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill and Sherry FitzGerald Country Homes who pin a €1.8m price tag to it.

It’s getting early interest, mostly international so far, says country sales specialist Roseanne De Vere Hunt, who says the setting is gorgeous, with spectacular views (cruise ships sometimes come into the frame out past the serried lines of mussel beds).

Flex those mussels

And, the location is quiet, shared with only a few other homes at the end of a cul de sac, only 5kms from Bantry itself, and almost within a strong drive of the 18-hole Christy O’Connor and Eddie Hacket-designed course, founded in 1975 on 170 scenic acres.

Although redolent of the design ethos of the ’70s with some stone feature arches and exposed ceiling beams, The Moornigs has robustly stood the test of time too: a tall dormer with steeply raked roof line, it has c 2,500 sq ft inside, with one ground floor bedroom, and four more doubles overhead, along with one en suite.

It’s got up to four reception rooms, with kitchen/breakfast room plus office, with an open tread hardwood and steel stairs, and is on a hectare of lawns with a more secluded barbecue spot, with mature boundary, balustraded sun terrace, and a good length of shoreline to a shingle beach with a gentle gradient concrete slip parallel to the lawn at its uppermost level.

Terrace

The Moorings is quite ship-shape as it stands, with mostly upgraded bathrooms, has a D1 BER, central heating, stone fireplace in one reception with a stove in another, and has double glazing and several sliding patio doors for external access.

Sitting by the duck of the bay

Going forward, it’s likely next occupants may seek to reconfigure the ground level and to open it up all the more, and make glazing changes/larger openings for those views, punching out walls and inserting steels, perhaps adding a garden room or sun room: the setting deserves it, and more.

VERDICT: Going on current and, indeed historical trends for the greater Bantry shoreline area, The Moorings is likely to get a buyer hoving into view from overseas

Pictures: ProMedia