A place of refuge with harbour view

JONI Mitchell fans or refugees?

‘Hejira’ is an unusual name to give a house — The Hejira was Mohammed’s flight from Mecca to Medina in 622 and marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar. It can also mean a journey to escape a hostile environment but it’s odds on that it was after the 1976 Joni Mitchell album of the same name.

This is no estate house. It’s a one-off set on Graball Hill, on the road to one of Cork’s south coast resorts. The Bays of Crosshaven are a very old haunt of city-dwellers, but now the pilgrimage to the sea has more to do with full-time living, than summer occupation.