The L-shaped Stone House has been tastefully nestled in Rossbrin cove since 2000, says Tommy Barker

Having opened a €3m Avoca store in Dunboyne, Co Meath, just this week, a Cork Avoca is next in line for the expansionist, upmarket Irish food and household product company.

Cotter’s, the only general store in West Cork’s coastal village of Baltimore, is for sale.

The rounded inspiration for this unusual home came from the nearby presence of a medieval ringfort near Clonakility, writes Tommy Barker.

Tommy Barker wrestles with coastal properties to attract overseas buyers around west Cork’s Ballydehob.

Tommy Barker on an architect-designed courtyard home on the outskirts of a booming tourist hotspot.

The chance to own a tidy slice of a scenic West Cork island Reenaroga, with bridge access, near Baltimore, has come to market. 

He tweeted sweet nothings to help out his neighbour — but, in the heel of the hunt, the global exposure that Graham Norton gave a West Cork house sale on his doorstep mattered little when it finally changed hands — after nearly a year and a half on the market — to an Irish buyer.

A British peer and former 10 Downing St adviser to Gordon Brown, Wilf Stevenson, has just bought the West Cork home of former AIB chief executive David Duffy, Glebe House, for close to €2.5m.

It must be hard keeping up with the Joneses down around West Cork’s chi-chi Castletownshend. 

There’s good news this month on the hospitality front for West Cork’s Skibbereen.

This distinctive property near Kinsale has plenty of potential for prospective buyers, writes Tommy Barker.

This distinctive property near Kinsale has plenty of potential for prospective buyers, writes Tommy Barker.

Juggling day-to-day professional jobs back in Cork city, and now with young children, means the owners of this Union Hall home have had to move closer to the big smoke, so they’ve decided to re-offer up this upgraded farmhouse to a much-improved market.

Former West Cork residence of Anthony O’Reilly overlooking Glandore is on the money, says Tommy Barker.

Tommy Barker says Castletownsend’s Tot’s Cottage has something different going on behind its facade.

The 84-acre Fairy Valley has two modern houses, farm land, ponds and Dunmanus Bay views, says Tommy Barker.

Tommy Barker on a stand-out example of laid-back 21st century living pleasures off the beaten track.

Our family were probably the first tourists in Baltimore,” quips Stuart Musgrave, as he prepares to sell his family’s current base on Cove Road in this appealing West Cork village, known far and wide, and over the seas, for its tourism, sailing, ferries and fishing.

Tommy Barker visits Ilen River bank home of departing banker, AIB’s Chief Executive David Duffy, after its latest €1m-plus drop.

Had a Happy Isthmus? West Cork’s Cape Clear island is in two solid masses, linked by a narrowed section of land known as an isthmus between its north and south harbours - and that’s where this Cummer home now up for sale is set.

<B>Tommy Barker </b>says you can really get away from it all in splendorous isolation overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

This year was the year of the Big Ask, but of a lot less delivery, in the multi-million euro house sale league.

There are already 22,000 people employed across Dublin’s Sandyford Business District — where a collection of four existing business parks has scope for 17,500 more employees, as well as further commercial and residential development.

An old, stone wall which was part of the original Castlefreke estate of Lord Carbery bounds Cloonbeg, a four-bed home which is for sale in West Cork’s Rathbarry village.

Union Hall, West Cork €795,000

Ahakista, West Cork €1.2 million-plus

Size: Sq m 121 (1,300 sq ft)

Friends in high places — no, not more on the Garth Brooks saga, it’s Graham Norton doing a social media favour for West Cork neighbours who are selling up in his beloved Ahakista.

Carrying the same sort of guide price as Tony O’Reilly’s nearby summer home — Shorecliff, on six acres — the modern Marine Hotel complex in Glandore is just new to market, compete with 17 holiday units.

GET the point? It might cost you a bit, but West Cork’s €1.5m Drishane Point is a sort of place apart, while also anchored to a Special Area of Conservation, near famed marine lake Lough Hyne.

Union Hall, Cork €260,000

The multi-million euro West Cork holiday home, Shorecliffe, owned by Sir Anthony O’Reilly, in Glandore, since the 1970s, has had a number of low-key viewings, mostly from overseas parties.

Size: Sq m 420 (4,500 sq ft)

Location: West Cork Price: €400,000

Location: Castletownshend, Cork

Sq m: 140 (1,500 sq ft)

A waterfront, 2.5-acre site in West Cork’s Baltimore port and tourist village, earmarked for a marina and tourism development, is for sale.

We scan a selection of trading up homes from around the country