Cork bar dubbed 'biggest confession box in the country' sold to local businessman

The Ramble Inn, the only pub in the village of Halfway in upper Ballinhassig, has been sold to a local businessman for close to the guide price of €1m.

The three-centuries-old bar, on two acres, by the main West Cork N71 route, closed last June after longtime owners Alan and Mary Barry called time.

Prior to its closure, it was the only pub in Halfway since Colman’s bar pulled down its shutters about 20 years ago.

It is thought the new owner is not interested in re-opening the pub and that the two-acre site, also home to a vintage machinery museum, is likely to be redeveloped.

Most of the two acres is within the development boundary of Halfway, as designated under the Cork County Development Plan 2022-2028, where an objective is to encourage the construction of up to 10 more houses up to 2028.

Many of the vintage items collected by the Barry’s were auctioned off last month by auction house Marshs on the instruction of the Barry’s.

Items included vintage tractors and lorries, a collection of Railwayana (objects and memorabilia associated with railways), as well as a 1937 Mercedes Benz 170V Cabriolet B car which was completely re-furbished in 1988/1989 and has been in storage since.

A large Canadian Cherrywood wall cabinet and TV cabinet by renowned furniture maker Joseph Walsh was also part of the auction.

The bar itself is a vintage piece, with property deeds going back to 1709, related to then-landowner Thomas Barter, a family that had vast estates stretching back to Kinsale from Ballinhassig and Macroom.

For the past 44 years, it has been in the ownership of the Barry’s, who also hosted vintage rallies from the Ballinhassig base for several decades.

Alan has previously described the Ramble Inn as “the biggest confession box in the country”.

“They’d come in and they’d tell you things they wouldn’t tell anyone else,” he said in an interview with The Echo last year, just before the pub closed down.