Many of us would not be averse to picking up an old stately pile, like this one at Grene Park, Dundrum, should we have won last week’s Lotto. Good land in a good location is always a sound investment — even if fine houses in the country lost some of their allure some time around 2008.

A Corkman has drowned in a diving accident at the island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand.

Historians are dusting down their maps of West Cork for an Antiques Roadshow-style road trip that they hope will unearth historical gems.

In the public memory, he’ll always be a moment.

THE busy South Cork guild at Innishannon got the past year off to an altruistic start with two whist card drives which raised proceeds for the Bandon Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber and Rehab.

IT IS suggested that in the interests of “health and safety” Cork County Council will propose that a large part of the funds which have been ringfenced to restore the historic Innishannon Tower in Co Cork will be used not only to clear the debris left after the collapse of part of the structure in the winter of 2007 but also to reduce the height of the rest of the tower.

MORE than half a century ago, a team from Cashel RFC headed for Limerick to face the full might of Shannon in the pinnacle of the junior rugby season — the Munster Junior Cup final.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS believe they have discovered what may have been Cork’s ancient capital, built 3,200 years ago at a time when Rameses III was pharaoh of Egypt.

THE former ‘capital of Cork’ appeared to have been short-lived, according to archaeologists who believe it was destroyed by an invading army.

IF YOU say something was active in 1,200 BC, it is difficult to get your head around the absolute immensity of the time gap; when you say something or someone was active 3,207 years ago, it becomes even more difficult.

A €1 MILLION cheque from a mystery donor has answered the prayers of a country parish.

Gardai in Cork investigating an armed raid on a bank in Innishannon on Tuesday afternoon now believe the men are part of a Cork City gang.

A motorcyclist in his early 20s has died in a road accident near Dundrum in Co Tipperary.