Lighthouse sells

Clare Island lighthouse sells as unique  ‘birthday present’

Áine Ryan

CLARE ISLAND business woman Ms Anna Wettergren has criticised the State’s failure to buy important heritage buildings, such as the island’s lighthouse, sold to a private buyer last week. She told The Mayo News that it was a shame the islanders – as a community – had not been in a position to buy the property and develop it as a quality niche tourism facility.

Islanders understand a German doctor bought the lighthouse for €1.05 million as a birthday present for his wife, at an auction in Dublin last week.

“The lighthouse is situated in an incredibly beautiful location on the edge of cliffs at the northern face of the island. It has lain largely empty for the last number of years, which is really a pity. There should have been some sort of Government facility which allows  communities buy such properties that are integral to the history of an area,” said Ms Wettergren, a long-time resident, who operates a café at her cottage during the summer months.

Early last month The Mayo News revealed that the asking price for the lighthouse had dropped a staggering 75 per cent from €2.1 million to €500,000. However, it seems that the price-drop attracted a huge amount of interest and the vendors, Lady Georgina Forbes, decided to sell it at auction as a result.     

Fr over 150 years, Clare Island Lighthouse provided a welcome beacon of light for weary sailors navigating the treacherous west coast. Built in 1806, it was decommissioned in 1965 because its beams were sometimes occluded by foggy conditions. An unmanned lighthouse on Achillbeg replaced it.

It has had two other private owners in the past, an Irish-American family, the Conlons, and Belgians, Robert and Monica Timmermanns. The Timmermanns spent substantial money on its renovation to an up-market guesthouse, which attracted Jean Kennedy Smith during her ambassadorship to Ireland, and television celebrity, Ray D’Arcy. They sold the lighthouse to Lady Forbes in the late 1990s.

 For the last number of years though the beautifully-refurbished lighthouse has lain largely empty with visits from the owner becoming more infrequent. Two years ago, islanders called on Minister Éamon Ó Cuív to lobby for the State purchase of the buildings. However, at the time, he emphatically ruled out such a purchase observing that the State had already a huge portfolio of heritage properties and ‘is not in the business of buying privately-owned properties, so hard choices had to be made’.