Starter homes: Sunday’s Well, Cork €130,000

Size: Sq m 78 (840)

If winter comes, can spring be far behind? Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley finished his Ode to the West Wind with that poser, and a lofty pad like Hawthorne Ville — on Cork’s Winter’s Hill — might well inspire its next occupants to lyrical flights of fancy.

Spring’s already in the air at this Winter’s Hill city address in the run-up to Sunday’s Well, with the greenery budding around this hideaway home.

The asking price is certainly going to pique the interest of home hunters when they see the descriptions of ‘four-bed’ and ‘detached’ all for

€130,000 or so, via agent Michael O’Donovan of Sherry FitzGerald. But, three of the four are very small, and even the biggest is, well, only big by comparison, it’s 10’ by 9’. Three are ranged across the front of the house so that you get views over the river and city, and southerly light.

The vista’s expansive, from St Vincent’s Church to the west, and the city and harbour to the west.

Directly beneath is the bend in the River Lee by Glenville Place and the Mercy Hospital.

It’s on the old-fashioned side, but won’t swallow loads of cash to get cosy. The fact there’s steps along pedestrian Winter’s Hill will mean a bit of lugging.

Downstairs is a reception room with back boiler, and a kitchen, and the outside front has a sun-trap seating space and storage.

The city’s a five minute stroll down the North Mall.

VERDICT: Swell buy.