Hitting the right buttons — location, views, and price

RARITY and river frontage come with this Innishannon house and site, now slashed in price.

Maybe €1 million for this 7.5 acre property, overlooking tidal River Bandon was conceived in more affluent, rising tide Tigerish Times — but, now at an economic low-ebb equivalent of €300,000, it must surely tempt some self-builder and self-reliant types?

The aerial photo seen here shows the scope and arc of this bend in the river site, for sale with Maeve McCarthy of Charles P McCarthy auctioneers in Skibbereen who say there’s still an on-going market for the more distinct property offerings. They’ve had some 17 sales gone through since mid-summer, mostly coastal, including one in Schull with a swimming pool. It had been guided at €1.3m in July 2008, but sold a year later for under €900,000.

This estuarine river-set spot, called Water’s Edge, is probably a 20 minute jaunt out of Cork city, depending on traffic, and precise location is down river of Innishannon, facing Shipool castle and woods, on the picturesque road to Kilmacsimon (about a mile further out the road), its boatyard and its traditional bar on the water’s edge.

Water’s Edge has a 2,000 sq ft house already in situ, not currently habitable and needing modernisation. Certainly, some will seek to replace it, or least dramatically alter it, given the site’s magnificence. Against that, accepting the site’s prominence from across the road and from the river, any development will have to be done super-sensitively.

The seven and a half acres with hundreds of yards of road frontage already includes a house, detached garage, a jetty for boating or bathing at fuller tides, some good grazing, matured woodland, and rushes and reed beds, giving quite an exceptional habitat for wildlife.

The river outside is navigable by smaller craft, and is popular with canoeists, anglers, and a trip up or down the river bank reveals some exceptionally-set homes, as well as the archly beautiful, chateauesque Innishannon House Hotel.

Cork city, the airport, Bandon town, Kinsale and beaches are all within a 30 minute drive of this riverside retreat, which is being sold for an overseas owner.