Oven-ready and dishy

When it comes to keeping up with neighbours — like a certain Rachel Allen, perhaps, who as it happens lives close-by? — this East Cork home went all-out in the cooking stakes— or, more appropriately, steaks, given the size of its outdoor barbecue.

Shanagarry, Cork €395,000

Sq m 184 (2,000 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 5

BER: N/A

Built big, in brick with two ovens/fireplace opes, this gargantuan barbecue can cater for a gang, and dispatch a small herd of Angus into the bargain. And, with its twin venting fireplace chimneys, there’s even a slight touch of London’s Battersea Power Station to this quite extravagant garden build, with inbuilt wood store and patio space for a couple of trestle tables.

TV chef, broadcaster and writer Rachel Allen must cast a long shadow of influence around the shores of East Cork’s Shanagarry, with th Allen family’s cookery school and Ballymaloe ripple effect stretching out to Ballycotton and beyond.

Well, this is a house that rose to any notional challenge of keeping up with the Allens, and assorted foodie entourages, or keeping up with Joneses: in true Vinne Jones style, in fact,it’s now for sale, lock, stock and two fully smoking, quick-drawing barrels.

The five-bed modern dormer home’s on a half acre, half a mile from the beach at Ardnahinch, and is priced at €395,000 by auctioneer Adrianna Hegarty of Hegarty Estates in Midleton, who adds it’s also close to Stephen Pearce Pottery/Kilkenny Design Centre and the Ballymaloe Cookery School, with lots of beach options on the doorstep. So much, so gourmet, and there’s even a bird sanctuary nearby, where you can look -but can’t catch or cook, no matter how free-ranging the fowl.

This sale offer is one of a number of similar looking dormers here at Ardnahinch, while internally it’s a bit different thanks to some feature use of brick in inside wall and hearth sections as well— and that BBQ is an outdoors stand-out affair.

The gardens around are well kept, there’s power and light to the BBQ terrace, and there’s also a detached garage.

Accommodation in the smartly-kept house includes sitting room, TV/den, kitchen/dining room with pine units, utility and guest WC, ground floor en suite bedroom, and overhead are four more bedrooms, two with en suites, and the main family bathroom has a Jacuzzi bath.

VERDICT: Now you’re smokin’.