Set on the edge of Courtmacsherry beach, with pretty periwinkle blue shutters, this former lifeboat station is the ideal home for a sailor home from the sea.
Anyone with a connection to the sea will love this former boathouse that once belonged to the Earl of Shannon.
West of Kinsale, at the mouth of the Argideen River estuary, it is on the beach in Courtmacsherry, a linear West Cork village, famed for its lifeboat heritage. It was also home to an Antarctic explorer and is currently where Taoiseach Micheál Martin likes to staycation. He owns a holiday home here.
Address: The Boathouse, Woodpoint, Courtmacsherry, Co. Cork, P72 VA44
Asking price: €485,000
Agent: Martin Kelleher
With its periwinkle blue shutters, the Boathouse, a cut stone building, is so close to the water’s edge that you can smell the ozone and see the tide levels rise and fall from its front and side windows.
The village was one of the first in Ireland to have a lifeboat station, and it has played a critical role in the seaside resort’s maritime history.
Built in 1867, the Earl leased the building to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in 1872.
Its original double doors at either gable end are no longer in situ. They have been replaced by uPVC windows, set across two floors.
The property is now a three-bedroom, three-bathroom, two-storey residence that was extended to include a sunroom that boasts waterside views.
Inside the original part of the house, the walls are cut stone and much of the ground floor is an open-plan kitchen cum living room, with timber beams adding personality to the living area.
The first of the property’s three bedrooms is also on this level.
There are two more bedrooms, along with the family bathroom, upstairs. Set under the eaves, one of these is also en-suite.
The RNLI’s Courtmacsherry Harbour Lifeboat had moved location to Barry’s Point by the time its volunteers got the call about the sinking of the Lusitania in 1916. With no wind to sail, they had to row the Kezia Gwilt 11 nautical miles to the scene of the sinking, where they spent hours taking bodies from the water.
The lifeboat crew and the villagers pay tribute to the 1,201 souls lost in an annual commemoration and the laying of a wreath over the wreck of RMS Lusitania.
The village was also home to an Antarctic explorer. Patrick Keohane was a member of Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic expedition of 1910 to 1913.
On that Terra Nova voyage, he bunked with fellow Corkman Tom Crean and was also in the party that discovered the frozen bodies of Scott, Edward Adrian Wilson, and Henry Robertson Bowers. Today, there is a monument to him in the village.
Situated right on the edge of the pristine beach and extending to 108 square metres, the property is surrounded by a railed garden.
Agent Martin Kelleher is seeking €485,000 for the three-bedroom, three-bathroom, E2 BER-rated, detached property. This price has been reduced from €550,000.
