Originally from Dublin, the O’Sullivan family have been going to the same field near Gurteen Bay in Roundstone since the late 1950s. Like so many families, with the car stuffed with children, they towed a caravan over what was then an arduous trek across the country. Today it’s about a 3½-hour journey, but back before motorways and widening of principal routes, the trip could take the guts of five-six hours.
Having fallen in love with Roundstone, with its white sandy beaches and turquoise salty waters, when the owner of the lands where their mobile home was stationed died intestate, the O’Sullivans had nowhere to go. “Then one day my mother was in the local hairdressers and heard that a woman in Recess was selling the field in Ervallagh. She threw a towel on her wet hair and drove over and back – with the towel still on her head – armed with a piece of paper saying we now owned the 2½ acres,” recalls son Jon O’Sullivan, who is now selling the property.
O’Sullivan says his father, a barrister and chief executive of Aer Rianta, was not impressed and said to his mother: “That’s not how it’s done.” But for the next 20 years, in their retirement, his parents lived between Roundstone and Dublin in a two-bedroom cottage they constructed on the waterfront site purchased by his mother on that day in the hairdressers.
In 2012, O’Sullivan engaged Dee Browne, the architect who had designed the original cottage for his parents’ retirement, and outlined what he wanted in a new house. Using local builder Brian Vaughan Construction and local stone from the site, a new, low-maintenance house was constructed on the 2.4-acre grounds.
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The property, situated at the end of its own quaint country lane, has been rented on short-term lets, and has three bedrooms with further space in an attic room, so can sleep eight in total. All bedrooms are en suite and though called a cottage, it actually extends to a generous 241sq m (2,594sq ft). There is potential to extend further in outbuildings, subject to planning.
With an impressive B2 energy rating, thanks to an air-to-water heat pump, efficient composite double-glazed windows and high levels of insulation, the fact that the exterior is stone means there is little or no maintenance.
Downstairs, an open-plan dining and kitchen area sits adjacent to a sittingroom. Also here are three bedrooms, and the principal room, which faces the sea, opens to the garden. Upstairs lies a formal sittingroom while another room to the rear is used for overnight guests.
Its asking price of €1.5 million has raised some local eyebrows, but for some to live on the water is priceless, and a rare enough commodity in Connemara. Often referred to as C4, a tongue-in-cheek quip as to the origins of its summer residents, Roundstone has been a popular haunt for the well-to-do from Dublin who descend for the peace, golf, seafood and the jade-green waters that lie just a few hours from the capital.
Ervalllagh, which is about 2km from Roundstone village, has become a very popular spot since summer residents now include businessman Denis O’Brien. “Seaside properties rarely come to the market here and the property has attracted interest nationally and internationally,” says Tony Kavanagh, of Sherry FitzGerald Galway, who is handling the sale.
