Bantry estate of grace with waterside cottage for €385,000

Sea Lodge Cottage started its days in the early 1700s

Sea Lodge, Bantry, Co Cork.

Bantry Bay, West Cork
€385,000
Size	95 sq m (1,010 sq ft)
Bedrooms	2
Bathrooms	3
BER	D2

There's a varied history of ownership of West Cork’s highly distinctive Sea Lodge Cottage – it started its days in the early 1700s, when it formed part of the vast Seafield or Bantry House Estate ... which once extended to some 80,000 acres.

Later, Sea Lodge Cottage was acquired by Bantry’s 1960s-built Westlodge Hotel on 25 adjacent acres for guest use, while the hotel also had self-catering cottages by a duck pond.

But, this original 18th-century lodge to the grand Bantry House by a tiny lagoon-like feature on the N71 approach to the town was then sold off in 2013 after the Westlodge went into a three-year receivership. The 100-bed hotel was taken over in 2015 by a local consortium, with a motor home park developed, whilst steady as she goes Sea Lodge Cottage has been in the same private owners’ hands since 2013, used as a retreat, and as an investment/Airbnb rental.

Who’s next?

The owners – who switched it from a three-bed two storey lodge to a two-bed so as to have a ground floor sitting room - are now selling, with a €385,000 AMV quoted by Skibbereen-based agents Charles P McCarthy, and that’s for a highly individual and charming heritage building by the sheltered shores of Bantry Bay.

First viewings started late this week, with initial interest coming from overseas primarily, especially the US, says auctioneer Maeve McCarthy of her unusual lodge listing, with kerb-appeal, in more ways than one.

It’s set just as the N71/Cork Road winds down to sea level approaching Bantry and the bay opens up on the left hand side, near the hillside stacked Abbey graveyeard, near the Whiddy Island ferry terminus, and the lodge is also right next door to the Bantry Bay Sailing Club’s premises and dinghy store, so privacy isn’t really a feature.

Entered on a side gable, the house effectively turns its back to the road, with a pair of owl-like ocular windows in the ‘back wall’ on the front, while what looks like the front elevation is to the back - so to speak – and is three-bay, with rounded dormer windows front and back, in the tall, steeply pitched slate roof. Attractive original architectural ornamentation includes carved fascia boards, finials, tall chimney stacks and brick detailing around windows.

Once inside, the 1,010 sq ft lodge is very well presented, decorated on a marine theme unsurprisingly, given the bayside setting, adjacent sailing club, slipway across the road and view of many, many boat moorings, waiting to fill up in later spring and summer usage.

The two round, porthole-like windows frame the boat-related activity and, as if that isn’t enough, light outlines of small craft under sail are etched on the glass: the windows also pick up glorious sunsets over the Caha mountains to the west.

There’s electric heating, a D2 BER, two compact first-floor en-suite bedrooms under pitched ceilings, main kitchen/living/dining, with a ground floor sitting room, optional bedroom three, with adjacent shower room.

There’s private parking and a sit-out outdoor area/small lawn by the tidal pond, said to be rich in wildlife and birdlife, with herons a feature.

VERDICT

: Roadside Seafield setting won’t appeal to some, won’t bother others and is (a)cutely outstanding in its own individualistic way.