Cork harbour's Riverwood is just the place to rest tired sea legs

Woodland with enormous Scots Pine trees towering away up to the back; water, yacht club and marina views to the front and south, plus farmland, and churchbells ringing out over the estuary — yes, indeed, a place like Currabinny’s Riverwood stirs the senses.

Riverwood, in Currabinny. Pictures: Tom Vaughan/John Roche.

Built about 25 years ago as a home for a family steeped in seafaring and sailing traditions over many generations and centuries - including transatlantic crossings in the mid 19th century - today, Riverwood is a good place for anyone who loves the sea and who wants to drop anchor to raise a family.

Given Currabinny’s setting at the end of a mounded headland projecting into Cork Harbour, and with a micro-climate to allows exotic gardens to thrive, it’s a fine spot to enjoy privacy with a good degree of comfort.

Set about a half an hour’s commute from Cork City, and international airport, or a five-minute walk to a pier and boat mooring, it’s the sort of place that would, and should, appeal to traders-up in and around Cork and its harbour basin.

As equally it should appeal to aspiring home hunters from overseas, even if those coming from anywhere abroad right now to view it - bar Northern Ireland or, mariners just off a ship and moving on again - will have to quarantine for a fortnight under Covid-19 HSE guidelines.

So, locals may get the first early heads-up, as viewings can commence at Riverwood after June 8, as the current family owners now prepare to trade down.

The home is for sale with estate agent Dennis Guerin of Frank v Murphy & Co, who’s a big fan of Currabinny and Cork Harbour, and he confidently guides the immaculate property at €775,000, knowing there’s a coterie of families who ‘get’ Currabinny’s almost ‘backwater’ charms.

Decades ago, Mr Guerin’s vendor family had previously rented one of Cork Harbour’s most winsomely-sited homes, the pink-painted all-timber-built house under Currabinny Woods at the mouth of the Owenabue estuary and river, as the tides flow in and out of Crosshaven, bringing and every day brings boat activity every day.

That timber house had been transported to Currabinny after it was dismantled at the Great Exhibition in the early 1900s. When it came to building anew, the couple copied some elements of that design, such as the slight ‘crook’ or bend in its floor plan, which makes Riverwood’s interiors just that bit more special.

Design here was by Monkstown architect Dermot Coveney, and construction was overseen by Frank Maxwell.

riverwood currabinny

Riverwood can’t have been an easy build, given the deviation in the core from the usually typical right angles, with some splayed angles, double-height entrance hallway, and feature wrap-around landing, and curves, among the many individual and bespoke features.

Previously on this spot was a kitchen garden, the owners recall, for a sea-faring captain, and it was blessed with asparagus among other yielding culinary crops.

Now, its 0.75 of an acre holds a detached four/five bed home with design and subtle interior elan and finesse, surrounded by mature trees, including ash, lofty beech hedging and lower box hedging, with an attached garage, in a scooped-out section of the grounds -the owners dug down into the site to be allowed a trade off of a full two-storey construct rather than a more standard dormer-.

Understated Riverwood is distinguished by its detailing, such as the natural slate roof, with gentle bow in the roof slopes; the over-sized double hardwood entrance doors with circular Philippe Starck-designed door handle; and, around on the river-facing side, its sit-out and roofed decked balcony off bedroom five/study.

This looks full-on to the marina and clubhouse of the 1720-founded Royal Cork Yacht Club. Internally, other touches creep up on you, such as the shadow-gap detailing around some door frames, or the recessed picture rails for hanging hooks, where walls meet the high ceiling in the airy main drawing room.

The welcoming reception room is triple-aspect, with garden and Owenabue views, and at the heart is a large, wide chimneypiece in sea-green Cumbrian limestone, framing a wide hearth with raised fire-basket, vented from underneath.

Its design was by a London-based architect friend of the family, Michael Dillon, who also drew the smaller fireplace in the formal dining rooms, set between the drawing room and the kitchen.

Quality finishes abound, such as the roof slate and the recently upgraded Aluclad double glazing, with wood finishes internally. There’s marble hall flooring and lots of maple floors; bathrooms have upmarket sanitary ware and mosaic tiling; ceiling heights are above standard too, and the staircase and rails above is stand-out, also to a design by architect Michael Dillon.

The kitchen/dining/breakfast room was quite recently opened up into an adjoining family room, so now it’s extra spacious and double aspect, with a feature, tall white cylindrical gas-powered stove. That re-orientation included a light-standing new kitchen island by House of Coolmore on the Currabinny Road, deliberately made a bit taller than standard to allow for water views out over the pink granite worktops and kitchen sink.

Riverwood manages to pull off a difficult enough trick of combining airy, high-volume spaces in its core with very accommodating and functional rooms, all in a package that’s less than 2,700 sq ft, with all the requisites such as a guest WC, pantry, en suite master bedroom with walk-in robes, and lots of walls for displaying art.

Preparing to leave, the owners say they are looking “with fresh eyes at what has been an idyllic family home. Being at a remove from the more fast-paced aspects of life, yet not isolated, Currabinny gifted my family and their troupe of pals, a unique, almost Swallows and Amazons childhood,” says the woman of the house after the family rearing years, and many tales of sailing adventures, competitive triumphs, and the simple joys of mucking about in boats.

Views-wise, “the boats, skies and trees reflected on a still Owenabue river are peaceful, but thanks to the tides, the vista is constantly changing,” she adds.

Then, of the ‘woods’ aspect to go with ‘river’ aspects of Riverwood, she appreciates “there’s something indescribably wonderful about walking out the garden gate, and across the road, into Currabinny Woods. The high Scots Pines over there are lovely to view from some of the bedroom windows, and provide a home to a heronry.”

VERDICT: A woods-set home for a sailor, a home from the sea.

Currabinny, Cork Harbour €775,000

Size: 2,650 sq ft

Bedrooms: 4/5

Bathrooms: 3

BER: Pending