Soft landing by the sea with privacy and comfort

GUYSCLIFF is a mark 11 property: the perfectly placed waterside house on South Cork’s Currabinny Road was built on the site of a smaller bungalow.

That dwelling was demolished in favour of this 4,400 sq ft beauty, which hits the market with a guide price of €1.65 million.

Malcolm Tyrrell of Cohalan Downing is the selling agent for Guyscliff: “It’s one of the finest properties seen in South Cork for some time. A very impressive product from the front door in — it’s been built with a huge amount of flair. It would be difficult to find another site with this level of privacy — it’s as important as any other element. Put the two together and it’s a formula that’s hard to beat.”

Designed by architect Bill Brady of Hill and Co, the house has a soft impact despite its size, and pains were taken to make it unobtrusive, given its waterside location.

This is the deal-clincher with this property: despite all the attention to detail, the privacy and the large, three-quarter acre site, it’s the water frontage and views that will capture the heart of buyers.

Just off the Currabinny Road, in the mature Castlerock Estate, the property is up the road from the Bayswater scheme, the most recent big house development in this desirable area. Those Bride View Development houses offer 3,900 sq ft apiece and there hasn’t been a sale there for some time. Current valuations would put these properties in the €1.4 to €1.5m category.

In Currabinny proper, Thika Lodge offers 3,000 sq ft of space over a single-storey design and the €1.7m price tag reflects the exclusivity of the area. That 100ft-long property hit the market with Denis Guerin of Frank V Murphy and Co earlier in the year.

Guyscliff, however, has a position that makes it instantly accessible to the new bypass road from Carrigaline and the South Ring: it’s also within walking distance of the village, which has been transformed throughout the boom years.

And despite its size, there isn’t a long list of rooms, rather the indulgence of a few impressive reception areas with four luxury bedrooms.

The flourish that lifts this house above the norm is the curved, cantilevered staircase that gives a Gone with the Wind sensibility to the understated approach.