The Sablecoast
Fourteen miles of basalt between Aldern Point and the Quarry road.
It is not a gentle coast and it is not trying to be.
The prevailing wind is south-west and it arrives with nothing in its way. Fog sits on the ridge from June to August and burns off around eleven. Winter storms take the beach away in October and put it back in April. Every house here is a response to those three facts, and the ones that ignored them are the ones for sale every four years.
Orientation
Four things worth knowing before you look at a plot.
Light
Everything faces west, so the good hour is the last one. A plot that shows badly at eleven in the morning may be the best on the coast at seven in the evening. Never view before four.
Access
The cliff plots are on unmade track. Aldern Point House and Kittiwake both need four-wheel drive between December and March. The Longhouse does not, which is most of why it costs less.
Setback
The shoreline setback runs 30 metres inland of the cliff edge, and it moves as the cliff does. Anything inside it needs coastal review. This is the single largest variable in any programme here.
Services
Mains water reaches the Quarry road and no further. Both bluff plots run on bored wells. Power is overhead and it goes down, on average, twice a winter — every house here has a generator, and it is not optional.
Spend an afternoon on the coast.
I would rather show you all fourteen miles than one plot. It is the only way to work out which part of it you actually want to live on.