Alive, alive, oh!
Where to buy houses for the finest seafood in the British Isles
Annunciata Elwes on the best places to live for seafood
Mussels Norfolk, £2.15 million
Most seafood is a summer affair, best eaten alfresco, washed down with a cool mouthful of Sauvignon, but, in the winter months, coldwater mussels fresh from the North Sea take over menus on the northnorfolk coast. In pretty brick and flint, Incleborough House at East Runton, near Cromer, is close to the action. The 17thcentury house has seven bedrooms and, together with the three-bedroom Stable Cottage, is currently run as a holiday let (there’s a hot tub in the garden). Both are for sale, with furniture, fixtures and fittings. Strutt & Parker (01603 617431)
Shrimp Lancashire, POA
Hot, spiced, potted and eaten on toast, the shrimps of Morecambe Bay have been a local delicacy for centuries and are famously a favourite of James Bond. Quernmore Park, a crustacean’s throw from the bay, is ‘one of northern England’s finest country houses’, say agents. The 12-bedroom, Grade Ii*-listed, Georgian property is set in parkland in the Lune Valley, with rose gardens, a croquet lawn and orchard, plus two cottages. Knight Frank (020–7861 1078)
Crab Cornwall, £1.95 million
Looking south over turquoise waters, across the harbour to St Anthony’s Lighthouse, The Moorings occupies a prime spot in picturesque St Mawes village within a charming Victorian terrace (with a blue door, next to the pink house). The are four bedrooms and the heart of the house is a kitchen/dining room with a central island, perfect for preparing succulent Cornish crabs, harvested by fishermen local to this area for hundreds of years. Outside, a terraced garden leads directly down to the foreshore and a mooring. Savills (01872 243200)
Cockles Gower Peninsula, £800,000
Once the stomping ground of Dylan Thomas, Mumbles marks the start of the Gower Peninsula coast, where cockles have been harvested for millennia. They’re no longer carried door-to-door in wicker baskets on donkeys, but Penclawdd cockles are still thriving; a set number of licences to gather them—by hand with rake and riddle—are granted each year. Near the heart of Mumbles, down a sweeping drive, is Gothic-revival Grade Iilisted 110, Newton Road, which has nine bedrooms. Dawsons (01792 367301)
Lobster Argyll, £950,000
With some of the best sunsets in the country and that elusive middle-ofnowhere tranquillity, the west coast of Scotland is hard to beat. Carsaig House, ‘one of the finest homes in Argyll’, say agents, enjoys outstanding views over Carsaig Bay towards Jura and has a balcony to make the most of them. There are five bedrooms, plus a stone-built boat shed, a mooring and a bothy that’s been converted into a gym. A small burn runs through the gardens, leading to several ponds. As the area is famed for its lobster, you’ll never go hungry, plus there’s a vegetable garden and an orchard with apple, plum and cherry trees. Savills (0141–222 5875)
Scallops East Sussex, £825,000
As well as mermaids, smugglers and crooked buildings, the cobbled, medieval hill town of Rye is famous for its plump, juicy scallops. An annual festival takes place every February/march to mark the beginning of the season and a Scallop Queen is crowned. Almost every building in Rye and its environs is both historic and beautiful, but Gun House, on the edge of Romney Marsh, is especially lovely. It was home to a naval officer in the late 18th century and the fantastic view of the Channel right around to Folkestone made it a handy lookout. It has Georgian sash windows, Venetian shutters, six bedrooms and a coach house where a cannon was once kept. Phillips & Stubbs (01797 227338)
Oysters Kent, £2 million
On the weekend of July 21–22, the town of Whitstable will come alive with shuckers and quaffers for the annual Oyster Festival. A fishing port since the Norman period, the event is based on a centuries-old tradition of thanksgiving. Oysters are available all year round, but the colder the water, the better the taste, so Whitstable native oyster season starts in September. Half an hour’s drive from the action, Grade Ii*-listed, Georgianfronted Little Court in the pretty village of Littlebourne, not far from Canterbury, comes with beautifully landscaped gardens, a tennis court, five bedrooms and a two-bedroom cottage. Jackson-stops (01227 781600)