Former Cork garda stations sold by the Office of Public Works in online auction

Three former Cork garda stations which closed more than a decade ago have recently been sold by the [url=

https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-41860002.html]Office of Public Works (OPW)[/url] in an online auction, while three further vacant garda properties remain in State ownership.

The former Ballyfeard Garda Station and residence near Kinsale closed on March 30, 2012, was sold at auction, and is currently sale agreed.

The former garda station and residence at Knocknagree on the Kerry border, which also closed in 2012, was sold for €184,000.

In Rathduff, near Grenagh, the former garda station and residence closed in 2013 and sold at the same auction for €324,000.

The former garda station and residence at Ballygurteen near Dunmanway, which closed in 2012, is listed as being prepared for sale in 2027.

The former garda station and residence in Castletownshend near Skibbereen also closed in 2012, but is listed as being examined for alternative State use.

A former garda residence in Kealkil, which is 10km from Bantry, is also still in State ownership, with the documentation explaining that “title issues” had to be resolved prior to disposal.

Former coastguard properties also listed for sale 

Nine former coastguard properties in Crosshaven are also listed as vacant and in the care of the OPW.

That includes seven cottages, as well as a site at the rear of those cottages, that are listed as being ready for transfer to Cork County Council for a social housing scheme.

The Echo previously revealed that five of these properties are cottages that have been under OPW care since before 1993.

A sixth cottage came under the remit of the OPW at an unspecified date, and a seventh in 2017, while the former coastguard site was taken on in 2020.

A ninth coastguard property in Crosshaven, listed as the Rocket House, was taken on by the OPW in 2020 and is listed as “to be licensed to Cork County Council to facilitate development of adjoining property”.

A reply to a parliamentary question by Pádraig O’Sullivan, Fianna Fáil TD for Cork North Central, shows that Bannow House in Carrigrohane, which is listed as a residence and came under the remit of the OPW on April 10, 2022, is currently described as “to be leased to Cork City Council”.

A former OPW office on the Old Blackrock Rd in Cork is listed as under OPW care since 2015, and is listed as “being prepared for disposal 2026”.