It’s a novel conversion

EVEN the prices have Great Expectations — up to €750,000 for the best apartments — but Havisham House at Rochestown in Co Cork is something to write home about.

Four genuinely top-of-the-range apartments have been fitted into the period home, from just under 1,000 sq ft to over 1,750 sq ft, and priced from €400,000 to €750,000.

Charles Dickens reputedly stayed in this Georgian period house in the 1800s. According to local stories, he heard of a woman nearby, jilted on her wedding day ('the wedding day arrived, but not the bridegroom', he wrote) are said to have inspired the figure of Miss Havisham in Dickens' novel, Great Expectations.