Kya deLongchamps visits a classic 18th century Georgian house with gorgeous gardens beautifully incorporated into its seven acres.

Sterling and dollar strength is delivering a boon in sales, says country homes estate agent Michael H Daniels. 

Coachford, Cork €1.25 million

Sq m: 249 (2,680sq ft)

It’s a case of ‘always the Bride valley, and never the Bride’ in the case of the setting of west Waterford’s winsome Brook Lodge.

Location: Dromore, Bantry €1.25 million

Size: Sq m 250 (2,600 sq ft)

Overseas buyers are confidently once again snapping up country homes.

Size: 345 (3,700 sq ft)

Seamark, overlooking Bantry Bay, is a wonder, writes Tommy Barker

A British buyer used the Christmas wind-down period to swoop on one of Munster’s best country estates, one with a trail of British blue blood — and the River Blackwater — running through it.

Oysterhaven property should have no problem attracting the interest of the super rich, Tommy Barker reports

There are encouraging signs of an appetite for Irish country house, writes Michael H Daniels

With beautiful gardens, elegant extras and handsome interiors, Chaffinch Hall is a delightful buy, Tommy Barker reports.

Property editor Tommy Barker rounds up some of Munster’s, and the country’s biggest house movers in 2010.

A FORMER part of the big Ballyneale estate lands, near Limerick’s Ballingarry, goes under the auction hammer in mid-November – complete with a carp lake and fishing lodge.

A GOOD eye, a very sharp one, eclectic too with a quirky and unerring taste applied the final gloss to Lismore’s Headview, once part of the Devonshire estate.

BALLYLICKEY is one of the scenic glory spots along the shoreline of Bantry Bay in west Cork, with Whiddy Island across the water and Glengarriff further along the finger.

NO man is an island – but the clued-in and fascinating Nadim Sadek has gently re-created one for himself and his family in Mayo’s Clew Bay.

TRUE Georgian era houses of stature on the Ring of Kerry are a bit of a rarity, and so Scart House near Castlecove is in rather an exclusive league in one of the country’s most scenic areas.

THE upper end of the residential market is strong, with buyers prepared to commit to multi-million euro purchases irrespective of the punitive 9% stamp duty.

A DISTINGUISHED architectural pedigree benefits Coole Abbey, a genuine Georgian home in Munster’s Bride Valley.

WHAT goes around comes around, and soon the sound of saws and hammers will be heard once more at this spot on the Convamore Estate in Co Cork’s Ballyhooley.

WATER frontage has come up trumps yet again in the smooth sales of properties, in West Cork and West Waterford, with the Blackwater now also firmly ensconced as a location for quality lifestyles.

THERE’S only so much time left to go to school through the fields at the Old School House on Church Hill in Glanmire.

Tommy Barker reports that an increasing number of sales are being conducted privately.

Tommy Barker visits a spectacular Georgian property that sits on 20 acres and includes a tennis court, stables and private stretch of river.

LAST sold in the 1990s, Brideweir is a former Georgian rectory arriving on the market upgraded even further, with a €1.3 million-plus price guide.

BRITISH tennis star Greg Rusedski, cleared last month of doping charges, may be the latest celebrity to find a West Cork home.

THE price has dropped back on Glenbeg House, one of Waterford’s oldest dwellings, a fortified 17th century manor house with three towers at its corners.

BUYERS at the very top end of the property market appear bullish about values — they are snapping up €1 million-plus properties about Munster.

By Tommy Barker INTO horses? Saddle up, and ride out towards Slievenamon - South Lodge to be precise - a spot that has been home to race winners trained by David Wachman, now married to John Magnier’s daughter Katie.

THERE'S a bit a hunt on for Fountain House, a fetching-looking stone-faced Irish farmhouse with a bit of extra oomph in its external appearance and enough land around it for horses.

FOR the majority of people, buying a house is one of the most important decisions they will ever make, and it takes time and deliberation to find the right house in which to put down roots.

CASHEL in Co Tipperary has two €1 million-plus Georgian home options, one a town centre villa-style house on land with development scope; the other a true country living retreat on over 20 acres of land.

CUTTING its cloth to a buying market’s measure is Golden Point, a waterside home and possible mariner’s berth in Cork harbour at the mouth of East Ferry: its asking price has been reduced from €1 million to €850,000 to expedite a sale.

THE price guide for wonderful Wood House, on a wooded hillside site at Curraleigh overlooking the Inniscarra dam in Cork, has been dropped below the €1 million price level.

THE courtyard of Ballygeaneymore House was once graced by the daily arrival of the mistress’s Rolls pulling up to the modest sized period home, greeted, no doubt, by a butler.

WITH Ford Week getting the wind in its sails and with millionaires bobbing about ten a penny in and around Cork harbour, house vendors locally hope to switch sails to sales.