Rathcline Road is the Dublin 4 of Lanesboro, a Shannonside village in Co Longford popular with locals and Dubliners alike for its boating facilities. The road is lined with smart bungalows, many of them homes to workers in the peat-fired ESB plant which, along with tourism, is one of Lanesboro's main industries.
But go beyond the end of Rathcline Road, by Rathcline House - once a convent, now privately owned - and pass the ruins of Rathcline Castle, home to the O'Quinns 400 years ago. The road here turns into a single paved track, with excellent views of Lough Ree, and Longford estate agents McDonagh-Casey & Co have a derelict cottage on a small site for sale for £40,000. The two-roomed cottage is basically a shell with a view: positioned high up a sloping hill that runs down (for quite a distance) to Lough Ree. It is a spot that would appeal to many, despite its relatively high price tag.
Although only two-and-a-half miles from Lanesboro village, it is far enough off the beaten track for someone looking for privacy. The cottage has mains electricity, but no water supply; a septic tank is also needed. The owner would sell the cottage with about one-and-a-half acres.
Longford and Westmeath are two counties where it is still possible to buy a relatively cheap country cottage: the average price of a derelict house on half an acre is around £20,000 to £25,000, says Jonathan Quinn, of Quinn Brothers in Longford town, who says Longford is one of the cheapest places in the State to buy a house. Denise Casey of McDonagh-Casey, also in Longford, feels you could find even cheaper properties, but that it's very unlikely you'd find anything below £10,000.
The property boom has, of course, affected prices here as it has most places in the country, with prices of cottages nearly doubling over the past two years, when £10,000 would buy you a place that would now cost £20,000. Both Ms Casey and Mr Quinn are surprised at the surge in demand from Dubliners for holiday homes in the past few years.
"Traditionally, there would have been a lot of interest from English buyers, but in the past two years, we've had more and more young Dublin couples looking for a holiday home," says Mr Quinn. Initially, the interest came from people living on Dublin's north and west side, where people have quicker access to the road to Longford, but now buyers are coming from all over the city, say the agents.
They are attracted by its proximity to the city (it takes only around 90 minutes to get from Dublin city centre to Longford town at off-peak times) as well as by the area's beauty and facilities for activities such as boating and fishing. There are also tax incentives both for investors and owner/occupiers under the Rural Renewal Scheme for the Upper Shannon region, which covers all of Longford. (Under it, part of the construction cost of new houses, and refurbishment costs of old houses can be set against taxable income; you can also get tax relief against rental income on 100 per cent of construction or refurbishment expenditure on rental accommodation.)
Travelling on the extensive network of roads that criss-cross the areas of Longford/Westmeath sandwiched between the main road to Galway and the road to Sligo, or the area of Longford just north of the N4, it's not hard to see its attractions.
Summer sun is beguiling of course, but even taking that into account, Longford and Westmeath have all sorts of delights hidden from those who have spent years racing west/north-west without exploring the midland areas not far from these main routes. Just five miles south of Edgeworthstown on the main Sligo road, for example, is the multiple-award winning village of Ardagh, an estate-built heritage town with beautiful limestone houses and an excellent heritage centre explaining the village's connections with the writer Oliver Goldsmith, and its more ancient legacy. (Prices near this tidy village carry a premium, even though it is not on water.)
Or hunt out Pallas, Goldsmith's birthplace, a lovely, peaceful spot in a country field where a well-tended little park commemorates him. Newtowncashel, a Tidy Town award-winning village near Elfleet Bay/Barley Harbour, off the Ballymahon road, boasts bog oak sculpture by Michael Casey, who lives there. Heading back towards Dublin off the main road, you can get a view of Lough Derravarragh from the grounds of Tullynally Castle, the Longford family's base just outside Castlepollard, Co Westmeath.
Holiday home buyers fall into two categories, those looking for a place they can do up themselves, and those who want a place that's already refurbished, says Mr Quinn. In both Longford and Westmeath, the average price for a reasonably habitable house on half an acre is around £40,000 to £50,000 - but again, location will dictate the price.
There are also an increasing number of Dubliners looking for permanent homes here. But this is not yet an established trend, says Mr Quinn, although one in four houses his agency sells is to a Dubliner.
So far, Mullingar, closer to Dublin, is more likely to attract commuters, but Mr Quinn predicts that Longford will become popular in the near future, as it already has with people who aren't nine-to-fivers and can travel at off-peak times.
Dubliners looking for holiday homes gravitate towards properties on or near water, which command prices about 20 per cent higher than properties not on the water, says Jonathan Quinn. In Longford and Westmeath, "water" means the Shannon, Lough Ree (the Shannon's huge inland lake), Lough Gowna, near Leitrim in north Longford, and the Royal Canal, which winds under lovely arched stone bridges through pretty villages such as Abbeyshrule, Co Westmeath.
Lanesboro, a major boating town on the Shannon, would command top prices in the same way as Glasson, just outside Athlone. McDonagh-Casey, for example, has a house on 2.8 acres at Bornacor, half a mile from Lanesboro, in good condition, but needing refurbishment, for around £70,000. But it is possible to buy a similar, or even bigger, house in a less popular part of Longford/Westmeath, for around £50,000. And yet, as Jonathan Quinn points out, anywhere in Co Longford is barely more than 20 minutes or so drive from the Shannon.
However, if you would seriously like to be surrounded by water, a house on Inchmore Island, in Lough Ree, is being sold through agent Donal Hynes in Athlone for around £50,000. The island is a 15 to 20-minute boat ride from Portlick Harbour, near Athlone, and a short walk through woods to the house. The house is next to another cottage, the only other building on the island still standing, apart from the school. On one acre, it has a kitchen, sitting-room/dining-room, bathroom and two bedrooms. Water is available from a well, and there is a septic tank, but no electricity (there is a generator).
Prices around Athlone are generally about 20 per cent higher than around Longford town, says Denise Casey, and you will pay premium prices for properties near villages such as Glasson. But agents Brendan Hynes and Finlays in Athlone have a good selection of Westmeath properties from around £25,000 for derelict-on-half-an-acre properties.
