Ardo Peninsula Cottage is pretty in pink
An area rich in maritime and ecclesiastical history holds in its palm a delightful home, writes .
Ardmore, west Waterford
77 sq m (825sq ft) Bedrooms: 3
2
G
There's both little and large out at Ardo, on the Ardmore peninsula headland in west Waterford.
On the ‘large’ front, there’s Ardo House and McKenna’s Castle, the still-intact ruins of a 17th turreted mansion , once associated with noted Waterford families, and French aristocracy.
Largely abandoned in the 1920s and looted, Ardo House is now in sorry disrepair,yet still an evocative and lonesome watch-out vantage point overlooking Ardoginna Bay and the approaches to sheltered Ardmore itself.
While that double-barrel named ruin is big and redolent of days of grandeur, its outdone today in cosy comfort stakes by its near neighbour, Ardo Cottage, a pretty-in-pink renovated and extended cottage.
Set by the scenic elevated headland road out by GoatIsland and a mile or so from Ardmore village itself, Ardo Cottage , with coastal views over tillage fields, is now a three-bedroomed single storey bungalow, with a modern but modest extension to the rear.
Even after that reared-on which now holds two of the three bedrooms (one has an en suite) plus main bathroom, this house still only measures up to a compact 825sq ft: what must it have been like before that addition?!
The original portion, to the front, now holds a combined kitchen/living/dining room, of about 300sq ft in all, but feels more spacious, thanks in the main to a slightly vaulted ceiling, finished with varnished wood sheet panelling, which blends well with a brick chimney breast, home to a solid fuel stove.
This original front section also holds a small bedroom, and a utility, and the BER is a low-grade G.
It’s up for sale now, guided at €330,000: that equates to a hefty €400 per square foot, so the price hope clearly is driven by location and setting, rather than by abundance of accommodation.
Selling agent is Brian Gleeson, who lives the other side of picturesque and multi-tourism award-winning Ardmore, which is home to the Cliff House Hotel and its Michelin-starred restaurant. He notes Ardmore’s enduring popularity with visitors and buyers from Dublin, Cork, Tipperary and Waterford, as well as from overseas.
Sharing a stone-pillared entrance with one other property built well back ina field to the rear, ArdoCottage is a 10-minute walk to Goat Island beach, and a five-minute spin to Ardmore village for amenities, or for buses to Waterford and to Cork.
Mr Gleeson describes the neatly renovated detached cottage as having been “beautifully restored by its current owners and rarely does such a gem present itself to the market”.
Ardo Cottage has already featured on Irish-related websites in the US, but without them delving much into the area’s historical or picking up much on the area’s historical, early ecclesiastical and maritime roots.
While the coastline to the east and west is blessed with several stunning sandy beaches, this is also combined with some seriously treacherous cliffs, and the area has more than its fair share of shipwrecks, hence the number of watch-outs on the headlands.
Piracy thrived here too in earlier times, while on the ‘good’ side, Ardmore is noted as being one of the first Christianised settlement in Munster, by St Declan in the period between 350AD and 450AD, and today the seaside community of 450 souls is watched over by the sturdily remaining 12th century round tower.
Compact coastal offer just o’er the hill from ancient Ardmore.
