I am selling a five-keyed flute made by Colin “Hammy” Hamilton from African blackwood and silver. Hammy’s flutes are among those most highly rated by traditional Irish musicians. Hammy made the flute about 2001. It is in new condition and is stamped on all three sections: “Hamilton / Cuil Aodha”.
I am selling some of my best flutes with great reluctance and only because I need money to finish the restoration of an old cottage. This is a chance to own a wonderful flute from one of the world’s top makers.
Ah!,
so you reckon no one in Ireland would want it at that price!
Good luck with the house restoration, I hope you are doing a good bit of the work yourself - people spend crazy amounts in Ireland these days getting people to do fairly simple work. Also hope you intend to live there - did you hear that figure quoted from recent census today - I think I heard them say there were over 120,000 uninhabitated houses in the country … investment properties and holiday houses etc. Absolute madness!!! Here we are churning out housing estates & apartments of very dubious quality up and down the island, destroying local landscapes and small villages and then nobody bloody lives in them.
We do live full-time in the cottage across the yard. We probably won’t be living in the shed-become-cottage. But it is warm and dry and lovely. I’d like to live in there and rent the cottage but Roz has other ideas and won’t leave the bigger house.
The holiday ghettos are indeed a blight. Most of them are empty 40 weeks out of the year. When they start to fall apart it will be a frightening mess. The Irish boom could be over, though the Euro is still rising against the dollar and will probably continue do so until Bush is gone.
Here are pictures of the shed, before and in process. The main roof is covered with slates I got from the quarries above Liscannor. The smaller shed is roofed with tiles from Martin Doyle’s old shed. We’re 90% done. Another six weeks should do it.
Hi G-man. I’ve been playing and collecting for years. Like planting crops.
Now it’s time to harvest. It hurts to let them go, but it is time to let go.
It’s nice to hear from you.
Toot on.
Jeez. Sounds like where I live (rural Kentucky). It’s a travesty, what they’re doing here – getting low- to no-interest construction loans, taking advantage of any tax break they can, buying elderly farmers’ land for a song, paying off zoning boards … and then declaring bankruptcy if no one’s bought the houses when the note comes due and starting all over again under another name. (While continuing to drive their Excursions and Hummers and put $1/2 million dollar additions on their already insanely sized estate houses).
I hope there’s a very special place in the afterlife for those people.
That looks SPECTACULAR!!! John S would have a fit … he has an old fieldstone slave cabin next to his house with a tree growing through it, and he’s talked with great hope of restoring that cabin (but first he had to build the barn and woodshed, fence the pasture, and then finish the barn loft, and …)
Anyway, congratulations, and good on ya for saving a little history. They don’t make them like that anymore, not even close.
Oh they are tempting those cottage hideaways, I’ve seriously considered it a few time but have never taken the final step due to cowardice.
A good contact for property is an old friend of mine called Steve of Green Valley Properties http://www.gvp.ie/ if any of you buy from him mention my name so I get my kickback…
A few days ago, I bought fantastic Wilkes/Wilde 8keyed flute from him.
Cocusflute was very kind, fast shipping, sent me enough information about the flute’s history.
I’m very happy to get the great flute.
And I think his remaining collection is just a national-treasure class!
cocusflute, are you selling all your beautiful flutes? You would have to conserve one old tin whistle at least! 
Good luck with your new house
