We have had a lot of time over the past 18 months to think. The ongoing pandemic and travel restrictions have allowed us to stay in Ireland and get to visit places which we have never been to before but are within a two hour drive from Cork where we have been living since we sold our house in Turkey. Once we sold up in Turkey our plan was to look around southern Spain with the intention of buying a holiday apartment there. The availability of flights, choice of airlines and shorter flight times make it a very attractive country for get away breaks for family and friends. I've been learning Spanish on line for the past few years in anticipation of this new chapter. But as the saying goes " The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry" !
Before we left Turkey and since we returned to Ireland I literally spent hours surfing the internet for properties and locations. I did find a lovely Spanish town which ticked most of the boxes and there were plenty of nice apartments and townhouses which would suit us perfectly. However, because of the pandemic we could not travel abroad. Mr. D suggested we should look at properties here in Ireland. At first I was very much against this idea. I felt if we bought a house here then that would put an end to my Spanish dream. Mr. D pointed out that our initial plan was to firstly rent in Spain, find a location we liked. Renting would give us the option of seeing new places and we could even spend time in other countries like Italy where we enjoyed great holidays in the past. If in the future we still wanted to buy in Spain then we could sell the Irish property. We would have options. I eventually agreed this made sense. So we both started looking online for apartments. After about six months of searching we agreed on and viewed a very nice three bed apartment close to a long sandy beach in East Cork. We put in an offer and waited. Another offer came in and we made a final offer just above our budget. A week later we got news from the estate agent that someone else had made a higher offer and it had been accepted. I thought to myself, " we will have to wait until Spain" !
A few days later I was lazily browsing sites for West Cork/Kerry properties. Prices are very high in these areas. Because of the unspoilt beauty it attracts many rich foreign buyers. This is good for the areas because they bring in money from abroad to renovate old properties. They employ local builders and spend their money locally. On previous searches of these areas I couldn't find anything within our budget.
I was pleasantly surprised when I found two properties which looked good in the few photos and were just at the top of our budget. The nicer of the two properties was going to be sold at auction so I wasn't sure how high the final price would be.
It was early December 2020 and we were now allowed to travel within our own county. These properties were just two miles away from the Kerry border. This place was right in the middle of unspoilt beauty. We decided to make a day of it and head west.
We were cautiously optimistic. We had arranged to meet the estate agent in the beautiful town of Castletownbere on the Beara peninsula. Half the peninsula is in Co, Cork and half is in Co. Kerry. I asked him to first show us the apartment which was in the town. It was a newly built first floor apartment in a block of three. It would definitely work as a holiday home. We both liked it but didn't get that 'Wow I must have this' feeling. We said yes we would think about it. I had a gut feeling about the property we were to see next. I had checked it on Google maps and it was in a remote village about fifteen minutes drive from the town. It was a dull grey day as we drove at speed trying to keep up with the Estate agent. The narrow road had twists and turns. We both prayed we wouldn't meet another vehicle speeding in the opposite direction. The unfamiliar road seemed much longer than we had anticipated and Mr. D commented 'This is very remote!' I replied, 'Let's wait and see'. Suddenly we could see the sea on our left and mountains on our right. This looks good I thought. Are we in Kerry? I asked.
We arrived in a beautiful village with a river and a bridge at the entrance. We parked the car and followed the agent. We all wore our masks. The only sound to be heard was the bleating of sheep. He opened the door and we stepped inside the house which was in a neat row of about 12 terraced houses. Immediately I got a warm feeling.
The beautiful staircase and natural wooden doors looked like they were just fitted. He pointed out the downstairs bathroom. He led us into the main reception room which was open-plan leading to a large kitchen. We both looked around and then at one another. Instantly we both knew we had that 'Wow I must have this' feeling. And we hadn't seen upstairs yet!
Upstairs was more than we had expected.
There were three double bedrooms. The main bathroom was a good size and the windows were double glazed. If it looked this good in the middle of winter, then it could only get better in summer.
He explained that the house would be going to auction. I asked what would the sellers accept if we were to buy it without it going to auction. He gave us the figure and I felt my heart rate speed up. Within 15 minutes of seeing the house we put in our best offer. It was now up to the sellers.
On the drive back along the peninsula we took our time and admired the stunning scenery. Would we be lucky enough to get this dream house?
The estate agent wasted no time in getting back to us the next morning. The sellers had happily accepted our offer. I pinched myself and was so happy that the East Cork apartment fell through. The scenery there was nothing like the scenery here. We had been to other parts of west Cork and Kerry over the years and have many happy memories but now we were about to have our very own house in a most beautiful magical place. Maybe for some unknown reason the universe steered us here. For now we will enjoy all it has to offer. A selection of views from our walks around the peninsula.
I will let the photos speak for themselves.
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