Ceann Aistear: An €885k home built for family, shaped by travel, and ready for its next story

Journey's End: Ceann Aistear is a substantial detached bought in 1999 by a well-traveled Irish family returning home to Cork
Carrigtowhill, East Cork |
|
---|---|
€885,000 |
|
Size |
297 sq m (3,184 sq ft) |
Bedrooms |
5 |
Bathrooms |
4 |
BER |
B3 |
THERE’S been a lot of changes in the last quarter of a century since a world-travelling couple fetched up at this substantial East Cork home — the trail of time-marking changes included the use of fax machines to send house plans to a spouse in the US; furniture movers packing up a one-legged 12-seat dining table from North Carolina; subsequent cross-river Cork ferry work commutes; and a promise at the very start that if the house wasn’t nice, they’d sell up again straight away.

That was back in 1999. It all worked out, the couple with then young children stayed put, and 26 years later, it’s trade down time at Ceann Aistear — a five-bed 3,200 sq ft home on 0.65 of an acre at Ashbrook, Carrigtwohill.

A Cork friend recommended East Cork developer Séamus Geaney’s upmarket Ashbrook scheme to them, back then.

The family’s journey included a time renting in The Fairways, Little Island during the construction period, with work commutes to Ringaskiddy via the cross-river ferry or via the city, “as the tunnel was not in place at that time in 1999, and the Midleton rail line hadn’t been re-opened either”.

Anchoring today is a feature stone wall seat, done by the mason who built this boundary wall, from original stone found in the overgrown ditch.

Selling on the family’s behalf is Cearbhall Behan, of Behan Irwin Gosling, who got a recorded €960,000 for a nearby Ashbrook home called Thomond last year.
