House of the week: Fountainstown, Cork €200,000

THERE’S almost a moveable feast on the doorstep of The Cottage, an original style former fisherman’s cottage by the end of the Ferry Road, in coastal Cork’s Fountainstown: here, the tides have been steadily pushing back a sand spit or sandbar, inching it further up the scenic creek just west of the popular south Cork beach.

The diminutive, yet charming, semi-detached cottage, now faces directly south over a grass-topped sand bar which juts into the sandy/muddy estuary separating Fountainstown from Ringabella.

Over recent decades, the sandbar has itself been jostled up and along the creek, moving the shifting sands by up to 100 metres, reckons estate agent Roy Dennehy, who this month brings the quite original cottage to the open market.