Making the most of a Mourne identity

NEWCASTLE, CO DOWN: £1.5m (€1.78M):BBC Northern Ireland's House of the Year has breathtaking views – and has been linked to St Patrick

A HOUSE close to where the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea has been named as BBC Northern Ireland’s House of the Year 2011 – and is now for sale. Built on a cliff top outside Newcastle, Co Down, the 372sq m (4,000sq ft) contemporary house has views over the Irish Sea and, on a clear day, to the Isle of Man. The award was announced last month by the programme’s presenter, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen who described it as “breathtaking and environmentally friendly”.

Belfast agent BTWCairns claimed “buyers would be hard-pushed to find a better seaside property anywhere else in the UK or Ireland” and is seeking offers over £1.5 million(€1.78m).

The vendors, David and Frieda Scott, said that “simply to do the location justice” no expense had been spared in the construction of a house they have named “Scotts on the Rocks”, although the postal address is the rather more prosaic, 8, Ballagh Road, Newcastle.

The four-bedroom house, secure behind electronic gates, on a 0.7 acre site with a south-east facing aspect, was designed by architect Michael Galbraith. It is surrounded by 65sq m (700sq ft) of terrace and balconies overlooking the coast.

The house is porcelain-tiled throughout and fitted with underfloor heating and solar panels. An entrance hall leads to two large reception rooms, a “contemporary French kitchen” and a vast master bedroom suite with a walk-in wardrobe and bathroom.

Stairs lead down to a large lounge, storage room, wine cellar and three more bedrooms. Southerners who went mad building en-suite bathrooms – for every bedroom – during the now mistily-distant “boom” may suffer pangs of envy. Each of the bedrooms is adjoined by the “decadent” luxury of a private wet room – a far cry from traditional Northern Irish puritanical spartanism.

Newcastle – 30 miles from the Border – is a popular tourist town, home to the renowned Royal Co Down Golf Club. The house is close to a landmark beauty, Maggie’s Leap – a vertiginous chasm over which, according to myth, a young woman called Maggie once leapt with her basket of seagull eggs to escape the attentions of an unwanted suitor.

However, there’s an even taller tale associated with “Scotts on the Rocks” – but you may need a generous glass of whiskey to swallow it. A stream flows through the grounds of the house and, according to legend, St Patrick stopped to rest beside it on the day he banished snakes from Ireland. Now there’s a water feature to beat the band.