Height of luxury

THE ripples of city-based house demand are spreading up and down the banks and boundaries of the river Lee — as they have done for centuries.

Previous centuries have seen the merchant princes and privileged classes site their mansions and villas to maximise harbour vistas and river views, and the same logic applied when Lavender Heights was built.

Dug into the stone face of a hillside site above Cork's Rochestown road (its original builder had an earth-moving company) it looks over the inner harbour, Mahon Point, and Lough Mahon. It is directly above the 12-acre, peninsular Hop Island where the equestrian centre run by the O'Driscoll family went to auction this week with a guide price of €3m, withdrawn unsold at €2.4 million..