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Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Summercove, and the livin' is easy...at €995k Kinsale Charles Fort vicar's home
VICTORIAN and Georgian era homes, as well as 21st century mansions and architectural glass boxes line road out from Kinsale town and down the steep, diving hill of Summercove to the waters of the harbour, but, in age terms, they are only trotting after the much older burly boy on the hill, Charles Fort. Star turn: Charles Fort: file image 2012 Denis Scannell The vast military bastion fort by the mouth of the harbour was one of the largest building projects of the 17th century, serving as a defensive structure up the 1890s, and holding within its star shape, ramparts, magazines, batteries and bastions, soldiers' quarters, officers' messes and the Governor's house, as well as an infirmary. Matters less martial were to be overseen by clergy, and it understood that this Summercove home on the facing hall slope to the fort was built to house men of the cloth, as a clergyman or vicar's residence. Charles Cottage Today called Charles Cottage, the house on a hill and hung with Welsh slate in front is a private family home, about to change hands and fresh to market with a €995,000 AMV quoted by Scott O'Sullivan and Ann O'Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald. Resales along this cluster are pretty rare, they note and while it's right on the road in front, the reveal is a large, tiered back garden, over 90' deep rising up behind, with a central apple tree, as well as having a compact private garage set on the road's incline, just a few doors uphill from the terraced house itself. The agents describe Charles Cottage at Summercove/Rincurran as having a unique character and history, 'packed with original features and with enormous potential.' Dating to the early 1800s, and thus likely to pre-date the pretty St Catherine C of I Rincurran Parish Church, the 'cottage' was extended to the back about two decades ago, has pvc double glazing, replacement fascia, soffit and downpipes and a D1 BER (it's not a protected structure) and has been very well maintained ever since, says Scott O'Sullivan, who describes it as bright internally with south and westerly aspects and harbour views. It's got over 1,400 sq ft/136 sq m inside, with three first floor bedrooms and main bathroom, and at ground is a hall, two reception rooms, one with period marble fireplace and fire basket, with coved ceiling, and the other has a wood burning stove in an arch recess, simple coved ceiling and window shutters. Behind, the kitchen/dining room is in two sections, with older pine units in one half by a white oil-fired Aga in an arched recess that also provides hot water, and the sink/wash-up with more modern Shaker type units is in the dining area, with overhead Velux and patio access: there's also a utility and a boot room/storage. Externally the enclosed garden is a very good size, up above a rear courtyard and has block-built sheds, mature planting and an apple tree in central, pride of place,and currently hanging heavy with shiny red fruits. VERDICT: Visitors and Kinsale locals alike just love Summercove, with its Cornish village vibe (and, equally, seasonally heavy traffic on its narrow bends), the Bulman bar, sitting out at the pier, taking the Scilly Walk back to town. The price tag, just shy of a just shy €1m for a street-side three-bed, one-bath home, appears high, but Kinsale is home to more multi-million euro sales than any other Munster location, and Charles Cottage is one of the originals. Hold the fort……
Irish Examiner
06-08-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Selling sunset in soft West Cork climes: estate agent Maeve McCarthy reflects on 20 years of highs and lows
IT was a Saturday afternoon, I was in the job a wet week, and I was showing a house somewhere in West Cork. The vendor had forgotten to mention to their twenty-something son that a viewing was scheduled. I opened a bedroom door to find a large lump of a lad fast asleep under the covers, just as a group of viewers came in behind me. He pulled the duvet over his head, I backed out, closed the door, and said the room was not available to view. To this day, when vendors ask me if they should bake bread or have coffee brewing before a viewing, I always think of that incident and feel like saying that just getting everyone up and out of the house is a great start. This summer marks 20 years since I joined Charles McCarthy Estate Agents, a business established by my father, Charlie McCarthy, in 1968. In that time, I have walked through hundreds of houses, taken thousands of calls, and guided clients through all stages of life —from first homes to final goodbyes. I have worked through the crash, the lockdown, and now a housing market more pressured than ever. Much has changed since 2005. There were no BERs, no Eircodes, and the Property Services Regulatory Authority had not yet been established. Not every day is sunny, image at Raheen and Castlehaven by Denis Scannell The introduction of licensing, energy ratings, and enforceable standards has improved the profession and raised expectations for both agents and clients. However, what has not changed is the emotional weight people bring to property. Here are 10 things I have learned along the way. 1. It is never just about the house. You might be selling a three-bed semi-d or a waterfront retreat, but what you are really handling is someone's next chapter. You meet people at life's turning point, be it bereavement, marital breakdown, retirement, relocation, or new beginnings. If you do not tune in to what they are really navigating, you are missing the point. 2. Everyone's move feels monumental. You may be juggling 20 files, but each person is only going through one. To them, it is all-consuming. Your job is to make them feel they matter. That they are seen, heard, and supported. Kilfinnan Castle, Glandore was a top West Cork sale in 2019 at over €5.7 million 3. You cannot keep everyone happy. Sometimes, buyers lose out, vendors pull out, or deals fall through. It is disappointing for everyone. For someone like me, who naturally wants to keep things running smoothly, that has been a hard lesson to learn and something I still struggle with. But if you are transparent and fair, people usually respect it, even if they are disappointed. 4. Adaptability is key. The job has evolved dramatically, from printed maps to Eircodes, from handwritten directions to Google Street View, from smoky back boilers to BERs, from faxing brochures to posting on social media. You have to evolve with it, without forgetting the basics: Listening, advising, and doing your best. 5. Presentation matters, but practicality wins every time. When I first moved home from Dublin, I arrived at a valuation wearing a pencil skirt and cream, slingback mules. It was the early noughties, after all. The client, kindly but firmly, let me know I was not dressed for the job, and he was right. That day taught me that while it is important to look professional, you also need to be ready to cross a field or climb a stepladder. Suited and booted A German buyer once summed it up perfectly by saying there is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing. In this line of work, few things are worse than spending a day with cold, wet feet. 6. Small things build trust. Return calls. Be on time. Say thank you. These are simple things, but people notice. Trust is built through consistency, and it is the everyday habits that count. 7. The market will keep you humble. I started at the tail end of the Celtic Tiger. Then came the crash, and everything stalled. During the pandemic, demand stayed high, but logistics were fraught. These cycles remind you that things change and that resilience is as valuable as strategy. The Celtic Tiger left hundreds of so-called 'ghost estates'. Now, there's a complete shortage of homes nationally 8. The best deals are built on compromise. It is natural for people to dig in on principle, especially when emotions are running high. But, in my experience, it is usually the clients who are willing to bend a little, without giving away too much, who get to the finish line. It is a skill knowing when to stand firm and when to shift. At the end of the day, life goes on. 9. The people beside you matter as much as the people you serve. Since my dad's time, we have always run a tight ship. Those who work with us tend to stay, and that continuity defines how we operate; with loyalty, respect, and a shared commitment to doing things properly. It has been a privilege to work alongside my father for this long. Charlie McCarthy and Maeve McCarthy marking 50 years in business in 2018 Even now, into his eighties, he still comes in and enjoys the work. We have not always agreed but our goal has always been the same: the best result for our clients. Interestingly, neither of us likes conflict. That, I think, has helped keep the business grounded. 10. West Cork has a way of getting under your skin. Whether it is a stone cottage in Ballydehob or a Victorian terrace in Castletownshend, people form deep emotional ties to place. Twenty years on, I still feel grateful to do this work. There are tough weeks and long days, but I still get that quiet satisfaction when I hand over keys, unlock something for someone, or help them let go. That feeling has never gone away.
Irish Examiner
01-05-2025
- Irish Examiner
Breakfast on the deck where not much can outdo the view from €675k Crosshaven home
FIVE years spent in Greenwich, Connecticut, a favoured New Yorkers summer escape with a 32-mile coastline, left a lasting impression on the couple that bought Waterville on Crosshaven's Point Road. 'We lived on the coast in Greenwich and we loved it and you could say that's what drew us here,' says the owner of superbly positioned, radiantly bright Waterville, a property you'd think could hold its own among the homes that dip down to Long Island Sound. As a couple very aware of life's stages, the decision to buy in Crosshaven 19 years ago was part of a retirement plan. 'When my husband retired, he wanted to move by the sea and I have to say the move lived up to our expectations,' says the woman of the house. She's blown away by the wildlife. 'I think the thing I like most about this house is the wildlife, which I hadn't expected when we came here. We've seen pods of dolphins and seals, we can hear Oyster Catchers feeding in the morning when the tide is out and we see curlews and sandpipers and herons. It's fantastic.' Giving the wildlife a run for its money in the category of most enjoyable aspect is the ebb and flow of the ever-changing seascape. All the moving parts of Cork's inner harbour are visible from Waterville: the yachts that head to sea from the safety of the marina at nearby Royal Crosshaven Yacht Club (RCYC); the giant Rotar blades of a wind turbine powering pharma in Ringaskiddy; the Cork/Roscoff ferry on its 14-hour trip to Brittany. Aerial view of inner harbour Picture: Denis Scannell Not everything in the habour is a moveable feast. The dense green treetop canopy of 35ha Currabinny Woods, on a hill above the harbour, is a fixture of the Waterville vista. Currabinny Woods is directly across the harbour You can drink it all in from the generous timber deck at ground floor level where dining out is an art form, or from the first floor balcony accessible from the study (best home office in Cork?) or from any of the habour-facing rooms in this spacious, 155 sq m property. You can step straight from the home office onto the balcony The crowning glory is the sunroom, wide as the property itself, and deep enough to comfortably accommodate a lounge at one end and dining at the other, with French doors to the deck at the midpoint. Doors lead from the sunroom to the deck De luxe sunroom Overhead, made safe by a glass balustrade, is the first floor balcony. First floor balcony 'The sunroom is terrific because you can enjoy the view whatever the weather. If guests are coming, you don't have to worry about sunshine. They can dine in the sunroom and it's just as nice to look out,' the owner says. Dining indoors with sea view They have a sun nook to the rear of the house, but it doesn't get as much use, because it doesn't have the views. The same goes for the substantial rear garden. Overlooking the rear is the kitchen, which has a sitting room section. Kitchen/living room A sitting room across the hallway is open to the sun room. The main bathroom underwent an impressive upgrade 18 months ago. Despite an obvious love for her home, within a short stroll of Crosshaven village and just a half hour drive from Cork city, the owner is sanguine about selling up. 'We've always moved our lives in stages,' she says. Karl O'Reilly and Michael O'Donovan of Savills are handling the sale and reckon the pretty coastal home will have a broad appeal, from those looking to relocate to the coast, to families trading up, to 'anyone with a boat, into sailing, who can just drop their bags and go'. The agents, who expect domestic and international interest, are guiding Waterville at €675,000. There's been significant price creep recently on Point Road as big names in aviation, pharma and construction bed down. Two Point Road properties sold in 2022 for c€1m. VERDICT: Multiple points of interest at this classy Point Road home.
Irish Examiner
26-04-2025
- General
- Irish Examiner
Darkness to light: The phoenix-like transformation of Cork City's Carrig House
There's a phoenix quality to the (re)construction crew behind the return from flames, and cold, cold ashes, behind Cork City's Carrig House — back to fantastic, good health and a future as a family home once more after 20 years of dereliction, and 200 years of mixed-use history. Sadly, the capital of the south has a legacy of letting quite extraordinary buildings lie idle, prone to arson or vandalism, or both. Insert your own pet grudge here: think of once-fine mansions and villas above this Lower Glanmire Road, Lee-facing 1820s property, up on the Montenotte hillside, such as the departed Woodhill, Woodlands, Ard Na Laoi and more, or various convents also straddling the northside's shouldering hills, hulking shells like the Good Shepherd Convent? Carrig House pictured several years before its restoration. Picture: Denis Scannell Or, most criminal of all, Vernon Mount House, outside Douglas, dating to the 1790s, languishing from the late 2000s, ripped asunder by fire in 2016, barely a shell now. 'You should take on Vernon Mount,' Irish Examiner Home ventures to suggest to artist-turned-builder and conservation expert Leo Linehan, on a revisit with him on a bright spring day in 2025 to this property, Carrig House. He replies that he thinks Vernon Mount has been demolished: it hasn't, but its fate still hangs in threads. Today, the sun brightly shines in the windows of this south-facing, painstakingly yet knowingly, rescued and restored 200-year-old house, with features from both the Georgian and Victorian eras, now with a B3 BER, and air-to-water heating for creature comfort across three levels of this commodious, c 6,000sq ft house. Carrig House was a radio and electronics school in the mid-20th century for a time after ceasing to be a private dwelling. Called Carrig House for generations, it was known as Bellevue House in earlier centuries — and the reason is clear. It is but a stone's skim or a puck-hurl from the arrow-straight section of the Marina opposite Páirc Ui Chaoimh, with the view facing over the river to Cork's now-loveliest and best-loved leafy Leeside strip, and a promenade well-positioned to reflect back on Carrig House's rescue, with warmth, affection and appreciation. For strollers, gleaming white Carrig House is a standout property, in good company, in this under-appreciated, south-aspected setting. Bellevue, indeed. The back door and worn hearth step stone. Having served time in the mid-20th century as a radio and electronics school after ceasing to be a private dwelling, and then being torched, there's now a welcome reversal in its fortunes. Bellevue/Carrig House could once more be a family home within the coming months, after a multi-million euro sale was advanced of late, yet to close, after a (re)construction bill likely to have been in the region of €1.5m. After years of being boarded up, Carrig House was sensitively restored. Bear with us here, in this off-centre but happy narrative: this isn't (yet!) a feature on glistening interiors, though they can't be far away. Wouldn't any interior designer love a commission here? This is about the beauty beyond skin deep, of good building bones, skeleton and structure and flawless, ageless finishes and self-belief: basically, if Carrig House had human form, it would be Isabella Rossellini. The 200-year-old house has features from both the Georgian and Victorian eras. BUT, it had previously flamed. The house scorched internally and through the roof back in 2002, after years of dereliction while owned by CIÉ who, at least, by partial way of recompense, reroofed it post-blaze, and boarded up its windows and door opes, while awaiting someone with desire and chutzpah to breathe new life into it, the kiss of life. Carrig House now has a BER of B3 and air-to-water heating for creature comfort across three levels. It took the best part of two decades to come to fruition, whilst in the same period several other period homes on its doorstep got sensitively restored too, while Irish Rail funded an access bridge to them, and to Carrig House, as part of a commitment when the rail line out to East Cork was first mapped in the 1850s. That bridge cost a reported €12m: talk about an exclusive, private entrance! Carrig sold not once, but twice. One buyer back around 2015 bit off more than she could chew (though buying for a seemingly low c €220k), and it resold for €420,000 in 2021 to Linehan Construction who delivered — as clearly seen here — to a finished entity that just has to be admired, in walk-in order to use the property sales cliché. A period window with trefoil detailing. Salvation The Irish Examiner's Property & Home pages featured Carrig House as a work in progress in 2022 — when we also eulogised the work Linehans had done at Skibbereen's highly-regarded Church Restaurant in a period ecclesiastical town Home mag: building, not just once (in 2003), but twice (after a maliciously initiated blaze in 2006). The bathroom in the restored Carrig House. Today, Skib's Church Restaurant thrives, and in its own domestic way, Carrig House has followed suit, to 100% completion, ready for home handover, such a rare example of a Good News story that we're back, here in Home's glossy pages now, beyond being impressed. Good as new, but old and seasoned, with its tall roofline, Carrig House has its internal, staircase reinstated, reinforced and with carved details matched; it has new windows (from Rationel) and the gothic-style, original, carved trefoil-headed windows are immaculately represented, and roof lights (lanterns) from UK company Roofmaster now are in-site in side wings on the west and eastern single-storey wings, replacing older and inauthentic crenellated wings. Cork stone fireplaces have been sourced from Jimmy O'Driscoll of Noble Antique Fireplaces on Forge Hill, installed now and ready for stoves, while the kitchen is Linehan Construction's own handiwork. The kitchen at Carrig House, by Linehan Construction. Munster Coving did the ceiling plasterwork details, and Pat McDonnell supplied specialist heritage paints. Finished across all three levels, with spacious attic rooms adding to a possible bedroom tally of six or more (and there's also access to a central flat roof right on top for outdoor views for the brave), it's now ready for keys handover to its buyers. 'It was almost calling me to it,' says builder Leo Linehan, second generation in the wider trades after an early career in fine art and sculpture, training in Cork and London, with much of his work now in UCC. Carrig House has its internal, off-centre staircase reinstated and reinforced. 'A place like this tells you what to do,' Leo says, while admitting Linehan Construction ( has done bigger challenges (there's one Victorian stunner in Monkstown), as well as new builds, with 19th-century city properties also reinvigorated around North Main Street, Adelaide Street and Grattan Street: he says it's great to be able to present a property like this, back to Cork. Linehan pays tribute to retired Cork City conservation architect Pat Ruane for his guidance and encouragement in the early phases of the project, which lasted several years for its dedicated work crew, while Cork investor Donal Cronin paired up with Linehans to fund the rescue. Leo Linehan of Linehan Construction and architects Alannah-Rose O'Grady-Kennedy and Bilal Mu'azzam in the dining room in 2022 during work on Carrig House. Picture: Dan Linehan Fortunate architect graduate Alannah-Rose O'Grady-Kennedy worked on the top-calibre Carrig House rescue project over the past several years, adding that it was 'an honour to help reawaken, one to cherish through our careers'. She adds the team is onto new projects now, and says it would be up for other 'diamond in the rough' challenges for clients, with Carrig House a very particular calling card for quality conservation: 'These types of projects are rare to find but Leo finds these gems and puts them back on the map. The stairs in Carrig House photographed during the rebuild in 2022. Picture: Dan Linehan 'From day one, he's had the vision; I've been lucky to be by his side through the works and assist in any way possible. 'When we were first introduced to Carrig House, she was a ghostly, derelict shell. But now she stands proudly at the gate to the city, showcasing her true, natural beauty. The hallway/entry with herringbone floor and old sandstone wall and overhead roof light. 'To resurrect these properties comes with a big price tag. But, if you're fortunate and brave enough to embark on such works, I can promise the outcome is beyond your wildest dreams and worth the blood, sweat and tears.'
