Lofty heights for ship-shape apartment
Former interior designer, and now Kinsale restaurant owner, Tracy Keoghan, has seen the world, and the posher, richer parts of it, from her days working on design and interior touches in motor yachts and sailing boats for the famous, and/or the merely rich. She has worked in some of the world’s glamour spots — such as Antigua, starting as a mere 21 year old and keen for adventure.
She has worked on boats for the Morgan family, of Morgan Stanley banking fame, as well as for the late Pink Floyd musician Richard Wright in the south of France, lived and sailed in Kefalonia in Greece and on board a yacht for a period in the Virgin Islands.
On a boat, it’s all about comfort and making the very best use of space and storage (it’s hard to add an extension to a boat, or a garage, she quips) and its the lesson that she applied when she returned to live in her native Co Cork in 2003.
She grew up in Carrigaline, but opted to buy in Kinsale as an investment in the 1990s, and she did a quick make-over on her purchase then, and far more fully in 2003. Now, with plans to build from scratch, this busy woman (daughter aged three, busy owner of the cafe The Lemon Leaf with 14 staff in the town) has No 5 Ard Chuan in Ardbrack for sale.
It has had the benefit of her design expertise and re-ordering, and despite being relatively small, it’s well formed, and quite perfectly pitched for stunning Kinsale harbour views.
“No two days, or even hours have the same view, there’s always something changing and on the move, irrespective of the weather,” she says of her Ardbrack Heights eyerie.
Just about everyone knows Ardbrack Heights, and just as many have an opinion on them. Built in the 1980s by a Dutch pension fund, (and colloquially known as Heineken Heights) they were unforgiving concrete apartment blocks slashing their way down a scenic harbour hillside setting. The familiar refrain was ‘how in God’sname did they ever get planning?’, but now that the entire staggered rows are built, landscaped as best as can be, and they‘re all maintained externally, well, they’ve found an acceptance of sorts — a sort of a familiar block on the seascape.
The good thing about living in Ardbrack Heights is that you have some of the very best of the Bandon river, Kinsale town, harbour, fort and boating views, in a 180 degree panorama (and you don’t see the buildings once inside!).
As Ms Keoghan democratically points out: “At least now 78 apartment and townhouse owners all get to enjoy this great view, instead of just a handful of private house owners if it was all just single houses.”
This is very much Kinsale’s prime perch, the spot that coined the phrase ‘you’re nobody if you haven’t knocked and rebuilt’, and the big example of this is just to the south, former Howard Holdings’ boss Greg Coughlan’s Scott Tallon Walker-designed home, Fastnet House, for sale for a reportedly below-cost €3.75m.
Well, doesn’t that make No 5 Ard Cuan look cheap, as it has a €365,000 asking price?
Sure, it’s dear for a two-bed apartment, but this is well above standard. Selling agent for No 5 is Josie Dineen, trading as Kevin Murphy Auctioneers, jointly with Ron Kruger of Engel and Volkers, and they say this apartment is in an early block with a different internal layout, which means that not only has it got an open fireplace for creature comforts, but its kitchen is separate from the living area, unlike nearly all of Arbrack’s other two-beds.
Apart from Tracy spotting the potential and benefit of this layout, she also managed to make other changes which give it stand-out personality. She got permission for a bank of six grouped, Velux-like windows for the main living area, so there’s virtually a wall of glass on the steeply pitched wall, each one framing a slightly different view, either for those sitting down, or standing up. Peculiarly, other apartment owners who sought planning for similar changes have been refused. Tracy also got to push the main front bedroom’s glazed wall out almost two feet into the balcony, effectively creating a bay window for the now-enlarged bedrooms, while a sliver of balcony holds outdoor plants here, and there’s just enough space by the main double doors to the rest of the balcony for a small table and a few chairs. Also inserted here is a glass pane in the balcony’s side wall looking back to the living space, opening side and harbour mouth views from within.
As if getting to do all of that adaptation and improvements in an apartment complex wasn’t rare and lucky enough, Tracy also got to put slick glass blocks in lieu of a side bathroom window right by the building’s entrance, giving her Ard Chuan pad a slightly more contemporary edge from the outside/rear.
Point to note: not everyone’s other adaptations have had the same positive effect, with some quite awkward other glazing alterations jarring rather than enhancing, and perhaps some of that is down to using garish white PVC, instead of dark grey to tone with the complex’s original masculine feel.
Back inside No 5, the imprint of some marine yacht design can be felt in the main (and only) bathroom — “it’s exactly like you’d find in a luxury boat’s cabin,” says Tracy.
Walls here in the sluicing room are done out in small black marble tiles, with a bespoke large double shower, with half-tiled entry wall, contrasting with glazed upper section and pivot door. This shower, with dark-tinted glass-block back wall, has two power shower heads facing one another from opposite sides, so it’s just the space for a bit of ‘you soap my back, and I’ll soap yours.’
The oval sink here is set under a black limestone surround, on a custom-made oak wash-stand, and the same joiner who made this also did hand-crafted oak cupboard doors for the entry vestibule’s storage presses, with square walnut dowel inserts. The flecked black marble tiles were imported from Italy by Tracy, who also sourced the small mosaic marble floor tiles in Italy back in ’03, ever before they began to surface in Irish shops.
Beyond/behind the bathroom is the kitchen, appropriately galley-style - to stick with the boat theme for a bit more - and it has cream painted units topped with chunky pink granite counters on three sides; a back wall is done in the same material and houses a washing machine, dryer, iron and ironing board, etc, for a purposeful laundry section. All very ship-shape indeed.
This kitchen’s bright and cheery, despite being compact, and has Neff appliances and quality finishes, with colour injected by simple things like a floor rug, chopping boards, knives and a red Nespresso coffee maker.
It all goes to show that you don’t need huge kitchen space for efficiency, and just about every task can be achieved while turning on your heels — very ergonomic, but it will only accommodate a chef or two. Too many cooks, or on-lookers, will spoil the broth.
The main living space feels airier than its size might suggest, thanks to all that Velux glazing and expanse of views beyond, and there’s sort of a back of old galleon feel to all that sloping glass and water beneath. Tracy says she set out to style the place with a New England/Colonial feel, but it doesn’t really show up or match her descriptions. That’s because she has it rented out at present to very careful tenants who only visit a few times a year, and who brought their own furniture from another Ardbrack apartment. Their furnishing and themed look — just as valid and engaging — is more on the marine/seaside decor end of the scale, all beach stones and shells to suit.
Most of this Ard Chuan block is owner occupied, and the profile of owners is quite cosmopolitan, ‘golden aged’ or silver-haired, and pretty much well-heeled, it appears.
Apartments here always sell well, with relatively recent sales of older-style two-beds close to the €300k mark, and attractions include the incredible views, the solidness of the builds, the very well kept grounds, off-road parking, pedestrian access to the Scilly Walk below, and electronic, access-code controlled gates off the main Kinsale-Summercove Road above. Legendary bars like the Bulman and Spaniard are easy walks away, either by road or the water-fronting Scilly Walk, and every other attraction in Kinsale is a healthy walk away too.
VERDICT: Great look-out perch, with the sight of sail and the sound of seagulls as a backdrop.
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