Abandoned after it was burnt down by Republicans during the civil war to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Free State Army, the 1870-built landmark slid into disrepair until it was bought by an American in the 1960s.
“He restored one wing as a holiday home, but the rest of it was crumbling. He died without refurbishing the rest of the station and left it to an order of missionaries in the United States, who had cared for him when he was ill. But they had no use for it, so it lay idle, slowly rotting, until it came on the market again in 1998,” Power says.
Power, who followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a fisherman before giving it up to run a seaside cafe in Ardmore, teamed up with a childhood friend to answer the neglected sentinel’s distress call.
“It’s a landmark in Ardmore and everyone knows it. Every kid in the village played in the old ruins at one stage, and it was also known as a drinking den before the council blocked it up some time in the 1990s,” he says.
Power and his friend, Johnny Flanagan, from Co Kilkenny, who holidayed in Ardmore every summer as a child and went on to buy a holiday home close to the coastguard station, heard in 1998 that the building might be up for sale and after lengthy investigations, eventually secured it and its surrounding four acres for €228,000.
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“Most of the building had no roof and the interior had been used as a pig sty by a local farmer for years. It’s also a protected structure, so we knew there would be strict planning constraints,” Power says.
Securing permission to restore the building to shipshape condition dragged on for about 12 months. “A lot of the local residents were concerned about our intentions, but we only ever wanted to restore the fabric of the building,” he says.
Power had more reason than most to safeguard the tumbledown station: his father had been a coastguard service volunteer.
“I would have loved to have had an unlimited budget but, unfortunately, we had financial constraints. With the planning delays, we didn’t start work on it until 2000, and we only really finished last year, so it has been an ongoing five-year project,” he says.
Power estimates he and his business partner eventually spent about €350,000 on the restoration project. “We did it on a piecemeal basis, paying for as much as we could as we went along, so it was difficult to keep track of the overall expenditure,” he says.
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Power had some experience of salvaging a ruin. He had once converted a derelict stone building in the seaside village of Ardmore into a hostel.
“I used the same builder and architect for this building, so that was reassuring. Although the hostel was a much smaller project, I was probably a bit less intimidated than most when I took on the coastguard station. The cafe I run now opens only during late spring and summer, so I had time on my hands to oversee much of the work.”
The have-a-go developer says that in hindsight, he could have transformed the rambling base into a one-off home, but he didn’t see a market for such a property in the late 1990s. “Even then, there didn’t seem to be as much money around in Ireland, or as much demand for spectacular one-off homes.”
Instead, Power and Flanagan converted the cavernous interior into four self-contained, own-entrance apartments for sale at auction on July 14: one €570,000 three-bedroom unit, two two-beds, with guides of €500,000 and €455,000, and a €965,000 five-bed “captain’s quarter”. Early interest is strong, with sales already agreed on the three-bed and one two-bed apartment.
Although all the units have timber floors, restored cornicing, and brick and cast-iron fireplaces, they have been left largely as blank canvasses, for the new owners to decorate.
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The apartments are likely to be targeted by Ardmore’s devoted band of holidaymakers, many of whom come from Munster’s surrounding counties.
Fergal Keane, the journalist, is one of the area’s most high-profile holiday- homeowners, describing the quaint fishing village as “his favourite place on earth”. Keane is less enamoured, though, with the village’s expansion, describing the building of a scheme of homes on a hill overlooking Ardmore’s 12th-century round tower (regularly described as the best surviving example in Ireland) as “barbarism”.
The controversial housing scheme, now in its second phase, is just a few hundred yards from the newly restored coastguard station and close to St Declan’s Well, where a traditional “pattern” is held on July 24 every year.
There are five stretches of golden strand close to the coastguard station, although last year Ardmore beach was one of just five out of 122 surveyed nationwide that failed to meet the EU’s minimum water quality standards.
Situated in a sheltered bay, Ardmore was home to Sir Walter Raleigh’s plantation during the Elizabethan era. The poet Edmund Spenser also lived nearby, but it was Molly Keane, the writer, who lived in a cottage in the village for about 30 years, who did the most to immortalise Ardmore in her Irish “big house” novels. Nora Roberts, an American writer, also set a trilogy of novels in the village, describing it as a place “steeped in beauty, tradition, community and magic”.
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There are more developments in store for the former “tidy town” winner. Fitzwilton, Sir Anthony O’Reilly’s investment vehicle, is planning to transform the old Cliff House hotel into a 20-bed luxury spa. “The village is divided over recent developments, but it still has its charm, with the beach on one side, cliffs on the other and pretty thatched cottages throughout. Nature was good to Ardmore,” Power says.
He points out that Tramore coastguard station was recently restored and that a number of others around the country have been brought back from the brink in recent years.
Power likens Ardmore’s coastguard base to one in Courtmacsherry, Co Cork, that sold in 2004 for €2m. Others have made equally towering prices. Rocket House in Castletownshend, Co Cork, sold for €1.9m in 2000, while a watchtower in Sligo Bay, framed by Ben Bulben, sold for close to €1.25m in 2004. Soon after selling historic Lissadell House in Co Sligo in 2003, Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth offloaded a nearby derelict station for a modest €130,000.
Most of Ireland’s coastguard stations date from the 19th century, when they were built by the newly formed Board of Public Works (a predecessor of the Office of Public Works). Prior to the 1820s, the coastguard service was known as the “preventive waterguard”, employing up to 2,000 workers at one point in its ribbon of coastal outposts from Malin Head to Mizen Head.
Routine duties included searching ships for contraband, answering distress calls and collecting excise duties.
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During the famine, many of these imposing edifices were converted into emergency grain stores and soup kitchens. In 1856, control of the coastguard was transferred to the Royal Navy, partly explaining why many of them were targeted by Republicans during the war of independence. Those that survived were promptly taken over by the fledgling Free State government, with new coastguard officers appointed to prevent gun-running and poteen smuggling. Other tasks included guarding fishing waters and salvaging cargo from wrecked ships.
Coastguard officers lived a peripatetic existence, transferred from base to base every two years to prevent their collusion with smugglers. It was seen as a tough, poorly paid vocation, especially on the harsh Atlantic coast, with guards’ sons forced either to leave their homes or join the navy at the age of 14 to prevent overcrowding in the stations.
Property Partners Spratt, 058 42211, www.propertypartners.ie