Hard to beat this perfect Retreat with a near-private beach in Cobh
FROM a place like French’s Walk in Cobh, you can see all the comings and goings of shipping into and out of Cork harbour.
And, two centuries ago, from this very spot overlooking the harbour’s key navigable shipping channel, you could blast them clean out of the water.
To say that the scenic setting is strategic is stating the patently obvious, as it has a clear, direct line of sight out to the mouth of what is one of the world’s very largest natural harbour basins, and a long history of naval activity. That’s why it was selected 275 years ago as the site for an important defensive fort, in use up until the end of the Napoleonic wars, and this house, The Retreat, was built right alongside, in 1798, as a home for some of the most senior officers.
Known as Cove Fort, and later The Batteries, the fort just east of the Cove of Cork/Cobh/Queenstown housed a number of 24lb cannon and an important barracks, with its purpose only diluted in the early 1800s as new, outer harbour defensive structures were erected on Spike Island (Fort Westmoreland), at Whitegate (Fort Carlisle) and Crosshaven (Fort Camden). And, other Cork harbour vantage points saw Martello towers also constructed, in a necklace of rotund defensive structures standing still to this day.
Today, though, activity at French’s Walk is altogether more peaceful, purposeful and pleasurable, plus reflective, as the original, walled fort site now houses Port of Cork’s operations and harbour pilots’ service, along with a public park, and the Cobh Titanic Memorial Garden.
There’s a direct line of sight out to the point off Roches Point where the Titanic had anchored in 1912, days before its rendezvous with an icy fate. Some 1,500 passengers perished, including 123 who embarked in Queenstown, and the names of those who departed from Cork are recalled in a large etched glass memorial in this park.
Witness to many momentous events, in war and peace, as well as to the more ‘mundane’ daily marine traffic of fishing boats and trawlers, yachts and dinghies, oil-tankers and cargo ships, is The Retreat, now a private family home, on a stunning acre of ground, with extensive shoreline frontage, as good as a private beach.
It sees, and surveys, all, including the passing of the increasing number of cruise ships, rounding the distinctive screw-pile Spit lighthouse on the Spit bank between French’s Walk and Spike Island. Those voyaging vessels now make regular stops at Cobh, and include the likes of the mammoth 5,700-passenger MSC Meraviglia, in May (pictured here, taken from The Retreat) and due to return on August 27. A more regular docking is that of the Royal Princess, with 3,600 pampered passengers and 1,500 crew, a combined complement that’s almost equal to half of Cobh’s year-round population.
The Retreat is one of only a small handful of homes in this cul de sac stretch, French’s Walk, off the Mall, within a walk of Cobh town centre, running east, downhill and down practically to the water.
There are about two dozen homes on the ‘Walk,’ and while all pretty much have exceptional full, southerly harbour views, only about eight are on the waterside of the narrow road, and fewer still have direct water access.
The Retreat pretty much has it all: period home of huge integrity, naval/military pedigree, and some 2,800 sq ft of space within, sunny aspect, views from all of the main rooms, mature gardens with orchard, immense privacy, and steps down to the shore, with shingle beach, jutting rocks, and swimming and kayak possibilities.
That beach is/was known to discerning Cobh locals as a dainty bathing spot, and traditionally was accessible via the The Batteries/public park. But, earlier this year, the council closed off access with a locked gate in the high, sandstone fort boundary wall, and already dense vegetation has started to clamber over the steps down from the fort....giving even more ‘exclusive beach’ privacy to the likes of The Retreat, more or less serene above it all, in any case.
The current owners have Cobh family roots, and knew a good thing when they saw it when it came up for sale back in the late 1970s. Now, 40 years later and with family reared, they are looking to trade down, and it is listed for sale by private treaty with estate agent Malcolm Tyrrell of Cohalan Downing, who quotes a €750,000 asking price, for what’s surely a local prize.
The last substantial sale on French’s Walk was of Bayview, a modern, 3,000 sq ft architect-designed high-end family home, showing on the Price Register at €705,000 in 2013, and both it, and The Retreat are in quite rare and exalted company, as any sale offers here are few and far between.
Possibly the largest of all here is Merton, a 5,000 sq ft Regency beauty on two acres, directly behind The Retreat, and which sold a number of years ago to an internationally known medic and writer. Merton had been marketed in 2007 at €1.75m, peak-time price days, and is likely to have sold for under that, but the sum is not revealed as it transacted in pre-Price Register times.
Malcolm Tyrrell describes The Retreat’s setting as “unrivalled,” and the home itself as a very special property, with views out over the shipping channel and full harbour breadth from most of its ‘good’ rooms.
Down the many years, since 1798, its been altered and added to, and has its space over two and part-three floors with two top-floor rooms, and is thankfully well maintained, but not over restored.
Because of its age and history, it’s a protected structure and thus BER exempt, and it’s a comfortable sort of place, at ease with its age, with a mix of timber and sash windows, white-painted facade under slate roofs, and is quite wide, and slender, with an upper level entry point from its sloping and slaloming wooded approach avenue, and a sunny, gravelled front drive and car-parking spot,
in front of the old, stone-built and lofted coach-house at the house’s eastern end.
It’s assymmetric to the front, with a mix and mingle of window sizes and shapes, with the best views out from a ground floor, front kitchen/family dining room, from the first floor drawing room directly overhead, and from a ground floor sitting room with two south-facing windows.
There are four bedrooms, several with fireplaces, main family bathroom, ground floor guest WC, study, and main and back halls, plus two attic rooms.
Best room? Without a doubt it’s the first floor drawing room, 21’ by 18’, with high, curve/vaulted and coved ceiling, graceful grey marble fireplace and full period trim, the perfect place to sit and view out from, through the two large sash windows, blissful in the sun, stirring in a sea storm, and at all times a privileged, safe place to keep a weather eye out on maritime life.
The grounds, too, are well kept and venerable, with a wide mix of trees, shrubs, hedges (all kept in trim so as not to impede views from the house), lawn, orchard and vegetable section, with a path down to a gate, and steps behind and then a bit of a clutch onto trees on a sloping section by rocks, to descend to the Cork harbour shingle beach and swimming spot.
Ships ahoy.
Cobh, Cork Harbour
€750,000
260 sq m (2,800 sq ft)
4
2
Exempt
Beach, waterfrontage, naval history and more in a special package
