Ballydawley House is on six acres of grounds, including vast frontage onto the Bandon estuary.

MY mother, contrary to the popular phrase, must have raised a jibber - because I missed one of the better property opportunities in the South two years ago.

For shame that a property reporter would not know her onions enough to back a hunch - in fact, I galloped in the opposite direction.

Okay, the story is that Ballydawley House, at Dunderrow, Kinsale, was offered for sale as a farm some time in 2000, through Paddy Murray in Bandon, Co Cork.