Coming from Ballyshannon, the long-abandoned Single Street Service Station is the first site approaching the holiday town of Bundoran, sitting in silent company beside a grown-over plot home to the bones of two sizeable family houses without windows, floors, numbers or names.

There's surprisingly little of interest inside the building, which appears to have become unaffordable during a period of expansion. It's in remarkably clean condition despite one or two dedicated rooms for witless scrawls.

I visited twice the day the photographs were taken and by my second trip the fence surrounding the land had been reinforced, so someone's keeping an eye on the place.

I met the same Mayo man upon leaving both times, walking with either half of a pair of children and in different outfits, his dog his only constant. Despite his apparent and admirable efforts to chew his words as they rolled from the cement mixer behind his teeth, I was able to glean that he thought I was looking to buy the place. I've no such notion or inclination or the solvency to consider it but I really wish someone would do something with it. I've too long felt that you shouldn't have to slip past a ghost to get to the beach.