Two for the price of one outside Kinsale

Sat, 14 Mar, 2020 - 16:10

Trish Dromey

There's a big block of very well-finished, brick-faced dormer home at Mount Farran near Kinsale, and there’s a hidden extra thrown in to the proposed sale of the property with its elegant interiors — it’s an old, two-storey farmhouse, in a corner of the garden.

Set out by a ridge upriver of Kinsale at Ringrone, amid good farmland and tillage fields, Mount Farran is placed on a landscaped and elevated acre that has kept a true link to the land’s roots.

It’s one of a row of about eight homes along a road scattered with a couple of dozen one-offs, sort-of parallel to the main road out from Kinsale and the ‘new’ bridge toward Barrells Cross and Ballinspittle. Some have better views than others, some have sizeable extensions grafted on too — but it’s a fair bet that no other home has an old, stone-built farmhouse tucked away in a corner of its site.

This house stretches to 3,100 sq ft internally, with extremely well-finished rooms off a double-height hall, with its three-sided overhead gallery-style landing, a luxe look across the many rooms in shades of creams, with high quality curtains — classic and timeless, rather than slavishly following fashions.

Maybe it was this respect for the past that encouraged the owners to retain and work with the original, far older dwelling on its acre, set at the back corner of these now very matured and landscaped grounds. Or might it have been a planning requirement? Either way, it’s a boon to see.

The house’s owners use the three-bay former dwelling as a workshed and store, and it can be glimpsed from the back rooms (especially from one or two first floor bedrooms) and the stone-flagged patio, and it’s also separated or linked by a flight of eight or ten broad stone steps ... as well as linked and separated by a century or more.

Estate agent Ron Kruger of Kinsale-based Engel & Völkers brought Mount Farran to an early spring 2020 market last month, guiding at €995,000. And, yes, it’s two for the price of one — but it’s a big enough price, just shy of the €1m mark.

But this is Kinsale, and it has views over the Bandon River, as well as relative proximity to Sandycove.

The local Kinsale market, which is always underpinned by buyers from out of town and overseas, saw ten or more €1m+ home sales in 2019, so clearly there are buyers with budgets out there for the right properties, and the four-bedroomed Mount Farran’s interiors will have an appeal at this end of the market too, as suitable for relocators as for families, with a notable offer of reception rooms, several with good fireplaces.

As well as the impressively-finished home, and the more, eh, rustic farmhouse, the property also includes a detached and lofted double garage, also finished in a red/brown brick, while the slightly tiered grounds are extremely well planted, with shaped topiary, shrubs, and evergreen and deciduous trees, including birches.

This one-off rural home is a few miles out from Kinsale, close enough to the Dock bar at Castlepark, and Ballinspittle, with its right-on trendy mix of eateries along the Wild Atlantic Way.

Beach offers include Garretstown, ideal for summer bathing and winter surfing, and the renowned Old Head of Kinsale Golf Course is, equally accessible, at, ahem, green fees ranging from €225 to €375 per round, or give or take €1,000 for a four-ball. Kinsale? Damn right it is.

The Price Register records nine sales over the past decade with a Ringrone, Kinsale address, with the most recent four all down in 2019, at prices from €530,000 to €890,000. A year previously, No 4 Ringrone Heights, closer to the Canon Duggan bridge (and its quirky take-away food van offers) made a reported €740,000.

Less than a kilometre from Mount Farran is the Ringfinnan/Kinsale Garden of Remembrance, with trees planted to recall each of the 343 firefighters who died in the 9/11 attacks. The garden was initiated in 2001 by a nurse in New York, Kathleen Murphy, who has Ringfinnan family roots and links.

VERDICT: More to Kinsale’s Mount Farran than first meets and greets the eye.