Trading up: Ballintemple, Cork, €325,000

A former orchard attached to a period home in Cork’s salubrious Ballintemple suburb may be about yield the last of a long-lasting once-bumper crop. The latest apple set to fall from the trees is 1 Ardcairn Mews.

Built alongside Árd Cairn House, once the home to Nationalist MP Maurice Healy, were two coachhouse/mews/staff houses, and at one time the house close to the top of the hill by Churchyard Lane stood on many acres of orchards harvested by the Hartland family.

About 10 acres were sold for development in the 1990s, becoming O’Flynn Construction’s Copperhill development. Árd Cairn House itself went for sale in 2013 for its owners, who’d built a contemporary home in the last of the grounds alongside, making €650,000 according to the Price Register.

Subsequently, the family sold the compact attached No 2 Ardcairn Mews. Now, the larger No 1 Ardcairn Mews is the last piece of the jigsaw to be sold.

Estate agent Timothy Sullivan’s back on the case in this niche setting, and he guides €325,000 for the four-bed all en suite home, with large sitting room, breakfast room, kitchen, and ground floor guest WC, all managing to fit into a home of just under 1,200 sq ft.

Location’s tops, condition’s very good, there’s parking and a west-facing back garden which is walled-in, and a patio.

Verdict: core values