You could be top of the hill in beautiful Glandore

IT may be fun to disdain the haute bourgeoisie of the Co Cork village of Glandore — but they’re right in their choice of location.

Conjure up a bright summer’s morning — sitting outside Hayes’s Bar with a pot of coffee and a view over blue, blue water.

Nothing’s stirring but a gentle zephyr from across the bay and God is in his heaven and all’s right with the world.

And yes, Glandore has the country’s most expensive real estate, but for the price of a cup of coffee you can sit and watch the world go by. Democracy rules here. For every achingly restored farmhouse, there’s a working farm yard not too far away and that’s the attraction really.

The big and the small. the great and the good get to enjoy sun, sea, grass grown boreens and the profusion of fuchsia and montbretia. This season’s property offering in Glandore is an newly-renovated farmhouse perched high on a hill overlooking the village and Glandore’s inner harbour.

Views are quite simply, stunning from the cow and calf rocks to Union Hall and the hills beyond. Redesigned by local architect, Mary Donohoe, Top of the Hill House is a 3,000 square foot, sleek property that retains its quaintness to the front, but stretches well out at the back to provide clear, white space and lots of it. Given an upside-down approach, Top of the Hill has living space on top and bedrooms down below, with a private decked space to every bedroom.

The main living room is a whopping, 1,000 square foot alone, with French doors to two balconies on the westerly side while double windows are broken on the northern wall, by a wide firebreast with sleek gas fireplace.

Walls and fittings are in soft white and there’s a huge emphasis on storage: all of the rooms come with high gloss built-ins, and along with a fully fitted kitchen, there’s a separate pantry/utility and a full laundry/boot room at ground floor level. Internal joinery is also in white, with strong use of opalescent glass and double doors: flooring is bleached oak and decking, gravel and stone are used as counterpoints outside.

Light, airy and full of space, this is a very sleek and modern renovation. In fact, it feels like a brand-new house, even though the old walls are nearly 3’ thick. There’s no genuflection to the past here, save for the half and half dormers to the front, which, while running along vernacular lines, manage to become full doors with glass and steel balconies.

The kitchen is housed to the front and runs full south along the first floor, with one wall of units and a super-sized island unit, still leaving a dining space at the western end. An entire starter home could be fitted in the same space as the main living room, which is almost square at over 30’ by 30’ and finished in cocoa and white. The pantry is sandwiched in between kitchen and living room and faces the landing, with a staircase dropping to the main entrance hallway.

On the southern side of the ground floor and facing a raised deck is the master bedroom.

It has direct access outdoors via the old front doorway and at its eastern end, comes with a white marble bathroom and separate dressing room, again, fitted in signature white units.

There are three other bedrooms stretching into the new extension and two face west, with their own decks and French door access. Again, the bathrooms have a white marble finish, contemporary fittings and concealed cisterns. Simple and monochromatic this is the kind of interior that’s impressive, but timeless and won’t be pulled out in five years time. Showers are simple screens for the most part, but with powerful, heads, thanks to a pressurised, oil system. The final bedroom lies to the back of the house and again, is a very large double that could also function as a study or office, or even, a separate TV/games room. Standing on half an acre of ground, the house is semi-detached but there is no visibility to the neighbouring property, thanks to high screens and immature, but efficient planting. Top of the Hill House is a two minutes’ drive from the village, along a narrow boreen and is on the market with Pat Maguire of Pat Maguire Properties.

He’s seeking offers in the region of €650,000 for this one-off and says the sale includes a mooring in Glandore Harbour, as well as PC sums for kitchen appliance and other fittings.