Harbour views and room for expansion in Crosshaven

GETTING the boat ready for summer is a bit of a ritual, where salty types tinker away during the winter months, ready for the next sunny season’s re-launch.

The same could be said for Knocknagore Lodge in Crosshaven, Co Cork, a bungalow with scope for something very special to be made of it.

The three-bed home itself, built in 1971 and pretty typical of its era, isn’t going to float everyone’s boat as it stands.

But, it is more about what it could be, thanks to its grand-stand site up above the yacht marinas in this Cork harbour village, a spot which is pretty much boat, sailing and angling obsessed.

Key to it is the setting, and the site size: a full 0.57 of an acre, according to selling agent Michael McKenna, who pins a €800,000 price guide to the property.

He has had to launch the property in the dark winter months. but expects sales interest to be up by spring when the market’s dreary hibernation might lift. However, a realistic offer in the coming weeks or months could well sew up a off-season deal.

Mr McKenna feels the existing house will be adapted, upgraded and probably extended rather than knocked and replaced.

This ‘lodge’ house is off St Philomena’s Road, a few stepped tiers above the Royal Cork Yacht Club and its marinas, and up behind it are a clutch of more modern large bungalows, backing into a mature tree line, built in the 1990s by O’Flynn Construction.

Knocknagore Lodge has a hall with oak-block floor, a 22’ by 14’ living room, kitchen, three bedrooms plus one bathroom, with mains services, steel windows and oil heating.

There’s also a 450 sq ft detached garage to the right of the entrance drive, with a sweep of curved lawn between the house and the cul de sac road in front of it.

It’s a place to see beyond what is in front of your nose, and to see what this site could hold.