The long drive home

WE Irish like to build our houses in prominent roadside locations, making the statement “this is where I live”.

The Paddocks, in Knockraha, outside Cork city, takes the opposite approach: it is set well back from prying eyes.

The Paddocks values seclusion: it is built at the end of a 200-yard long, beech-tree lined drive, off a quiet county road, two miles off the Cork-to-Dublin road and the Watergrasshill bypass. This location is ten miles from Cork city.