House of the Week: A small spot on the edge of Skibbereen

Even small spots like Rossnagoose, on the edge of Skibbereen in West Cork by Abbeystrewery, can look out on wider global horizons than their elevated physical setting might normally allow.

Within sight of the Ilen River as it wends its way from town to sea by Baltimore, occupants of this home called Cape View can scan the river for top rowers like the Silver Medal Olympic winners the O’Donovan brothers, and many others, from this illustrous and multi-garlanded club, now almost 50 years on the pull on this estuarine stretch of the Ilen.

And, while cries of “pull like a dog” might have faded on the West Cork winds, the parish of Abbeystrewery can today hold its head and hearts up with the very best of polite choral society: local Rector of the Abbeystrewery Union of Parishes, the Rev John Ardis, took off with members of the West Cork Choral Singers earlier this month to sing in New York’s Carnegie Hall, invited as an international choir of distinction to an event celebrating the music of UK composer Karl