Drop anchor right here at this waterside home on a creek inlet

WITH its back to a quiet coastal Cork harbour road, a toe dipped in the water and a price drop of €200,000, Golden Point could be a place to drop anchor for world-weary travellers.

The place hit the market over a year ago during Ford Week 2002 with a €1 million price guide but failed to land a buyer.

Now, with a change of estate agent and a renewed sales push with a vendor keen to move on, viewers might be tempted to give it a second thought and see more value in this East Ferry waterside home and make a bid through auctioneers Hamilton Osborne King.

Built four years ago, in the grounds of a house with several hundreds of years of history and a smuggling link with the past, this finely finished 3,000 sq ft home has three ensuite bedrooms, and big, open and bright living quarters, with south-facing views of Cork harbour.

This East Ferry creek inlet is one of the prettiest and least travelled stretches of Cork harbour, carefully controlled in planning terms, with old woods on either side of the estuary and slipway reminders of the times when small ferries plied a path between Cobh and Great Island and the eastern side of the county.

There's a popular pub on the eastern side, and across on Great Island is Marlogue wood and a yacht marina.

Golden Point is a place that obviously revels in its location, with no less than 22 doors connecting inside and out where another house might have windows, this place has sets of French doors.

The vendor, originally born in nearby Cloyne in east Cork, has lived abroad for many years, from the continent to Canada, and the interior reflects this international dimension. While it is the first house she built and designed from scratch, it is the 13th house into which she has had input.

The bend-in-the-river site necessitated over 150 tonnes of rockfill and reclamation, and the grounds are almost all hard surfaces, patios and gravel, so maintenance is low.

The expensively finished interior includes a large sitting room, kitchen/dining almost 20' square, TV room, utility, large hall, ground floor guest bedroom and two overhead bedrooms, one with a balcony.