Romantics who love the sea could head north to beautiful Whitepark Bay, a crescent of sand just one bay over from the Unesco World Heritage site the Giant's Causeway, where The Braddan, a minnow of a holiday house, with nautical decor, will surely appeal.
Originally a Victorian mill that was converted and extended to create a higgledy piggledy summer house, the property has been owned by a retired clergyman and school master and comes with its own tiny place of worship, a cow byre that has been converted into what the agent is calling “the smallest church in Ireland”. Dedicated to St Gobban, it is just 8ft by 4ft in size.
The original mill has been enlarged and the house is now about 1,800sq ft (167sq m). The drawingroom, with galleon-like large windows and ceiling beams, was once the coach house and is full of character. There's a faded leopardskin rug and a deckchair and side lights said to have been made for the Titanic but instead of sailing on that fateful maiden voyage they were in storage until the 1960s.
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The house has a large inner hall with a big wood-burning stove and a pool table. The kitchen, a galley-like room with a galleried upper area, acts as a second sittingroom.
Built into a cliff and set on about one third of an acre, The Braddan includes a boat house on the shore side of the road. Bushmills village is a three-minute drive.
The layout, while charming, won’t suit everyone. There are three bedrooms, two only cabin- sized singles featuring bunks. The third is situated off the drawing room.
The house needs insulation. It has a G1 Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) which is similar to our BER system. It is asking €512,000 (£375,000) through Holywood-based Simon Brien Residential in North Down.
