Battle looms for castle in sight of Gladiator II star Paul Mescal's West Cork hideaway
Might Buyer For Leamcon The Uk But, Be Lawlor And Local Tom Pictures: From Schull's Castle The Us Instant Inquiries
WILL Gladiator star Paul Mescal come wielding his bulked-up wallet to do bidding battle on a stunningly- set West Cork castle? Why not, it's located just under his nose when he is enjoying downtime in his Schull holiday home.
Just up for sale for the first time in half a century is the 15th century Leamcon Castle on a remote, rocky headland reached via a slender bridge over a gully, at the end of a farm lane.
A perfect, defensive 'off the beaten track' hideaway from prying eyes, the habitable castle is expected to sell for around €400,000 – a mere drop in the ocean sort of figure for anyone who can now command fees at multi-million euro levels for a few months’ work, and has been a brand ambassador for Cartier and Gucci, as well as unpaid promotions for O’Neill GAA shorts.
If award-winning Irish actor Mescal does jump the gully for this remote castle on the water's edge, one already in his daily views from his private Schull bolthole, he’ll be following in the footsteps of fellow thespian and neighbour Jeremy Irons who also owns a much larger tower of similar vintage, Kilcoe Castle a few miles away on the same craggy Cork coastline.
The Atlantic-battered coastline is dotted with defensive clan castles towers, look-out towers, belvederes and lighthouses such as ‘Ireland’s teardrop,’ the iconic Fastnet, whose light flashes nightly on Leamcon like a Hollywood spotlight, as well as spanning a wide West Cork catchment.
Just up for sale this week is Leamcon Castle, also know as The Black Castle, reached via a tiny bridge at Castlepoint, near Gunpoint, Schull at the mouth of Roaringwater Bay and scanning Carbery’s 100 Isles.
It’s listed as ‘price on application’ with agent Colm Cleary of James Lyons O’Keeffe auctioneers, who previously sold Schull/Ballydehob homes to leading Irish actors Paul Mescal and to Saoirse Ronan.
Heck, even the Skull address sounds like set dressing directions suitable for a movie star whose career trajectory is now stellar, after the action-packed Gladiator ll catapulted Maynooth-born, part-time West Cork resident Paul Mescal into the multi-million euro fee earning category.
Before shooting Gladiator with director Ridley Scott, Paul Mescal’s worth was put at around €2 million: media reports says he has earned a similar sort of €2m sum now for Gladiator…though his co-star’s Denzel Washington’s fee for the same action flick is estimated at €20m, so the sky’s the limit for his future earnings?
Sea-scanning and looking skywards, Leamcon or The Black Castle dates to the mid-1400s, is habitable with two bedrooms, is near the Napoleonic-era Leamcon signal tower, and is overlooked by just a handful of homes on the sparse and weather-lashed Mizen headland hills behind.
Among those properties with Leamcon Castle in their sights is the traditional-style, stone-built West Cork farmhouse and guest cottage which bought by Paul Mescal in 2022, while dating singer Phoebe Bridgers, and which he acquired for a reported €600,000.
Leamcon Castle – the name translates at Hounds Leap – dates to the mid-1400s, and was built by the O’Mahony Clan, at a time of extensive local piracy.
It's a modest-sized tower castle rescued from hundreds of years abandonment and decay by an Irish architect Niall Hyde, who’d studied in the US and returned home to bravely take on securing the structure for future generations.
He and his wife Dorothy used it as a family holiday base, and are now selling it after decades’ of enjoyment, due to advancing years.
It’s smaller than Jeremy Irons’ Kilcoe tower and turret, a former McCarthy Clan castle which is near Ballydehob and both castles were attacked and damaged by English forces in 1602 at the time of the Battle of Kinsale.
Not entirely coincidentally, Mescal's fellow Irish actor Saoirse Ronan also has a holiday home by a cove near Ballydehob, and the gilded 'Mizen Boulevard' movieland set locally also includes David Putnam: All four West Cork devotees, Paul Mescal, Saoirse Ronan, Jeremy Irons and David Putnam are enthusiastic supporters of Schull’s annual Fastnet Film Festival.
Leamcon or Black Castle hit the internet on Tuesday and is already getting inquiries from the US and the UK, said auctioneer Colm Cleary.
Saved from ruin in the 1970s by the Hyde family, it has c 150 sq metres of basic accommodation, and likely to temper some bidding frenzy is the limited access (boat, anyone?), and the fact the island it stands on is owned by another family, with just 20’ of site around its high walls, with right of way access to the 15th century, stand-alone structure.
DETAILS: www.westcorkproperty.com