Harbour mouth: open wide, say aaaaah! for €575k property prospect

Weavers Point home sees all traffic into and out of Cork harbour

Weave your way to Villaflor,  Weavers Point, Crosshaven. Savills' agent Lawrence Sweeney guides at €575,000

Cork Harbour Mouth
€595,000
Size	135 sq m (1,450 sq ft) -
Bedrooms	3-4
Bathrooms	2
BER	E1

SHARING a name with the highest village on the Canarian island of Tenerife, Cork’s Villaflor also shares related traits - elevation and vistas.

Villaflor was built in the 1980s: will it survive, thrive, or dive?

This Villaflor is an early 1980s dormer bungalow in a setting that can be jaw-dropping at times, right by the mouth of Cork harbour, with views into the harbour, out to sea, over to Roches Point and White Bay.

Aerial view of Fort Camden, Crosshaven, and Roches Point, Cork Harbour. Picture: Denis Scannell

Nothing comes into, or out of, Cork port without passing this sentinel point and “every hour, the view changes,” observes estate agent Lawrence Sweeney of Savills, Cork, who’s now selling for a family generation that grew up here but who are now living away from their native Cork.

They have heavy hearts upping anchor, and they have the best memories of their youth here by the sea and coves, but that outdoor lifestyle idyll is what will now attract a new, young family to put down their own roots and memories at Villaflor.

It’s already the second home on this plot, was built in the early 1980s, and it replaced an earlier, simpler dwelling of which only a retained cast iron fireplace now remains in the current iteration.

Interior

The vendors say the earlier house had links to British military/navy at the start of the last century given its strategic vantage point over all marine traffic: even the Titanic was a spotted visitor, mooring just off the harbour mouth on its ill-fated maiden voyage 110 years ago.

What is the fate now of Villaflor? Sink or swim?

Vista at Villaflor

The site, of one-third of an acre, is so good some might seek to buy and replace the current home here entirely, others may do a major rebuild/extension with lots of glass, and a few may just nudge it along a bit, happy enough to have a base in such a spot.

Mr Sweeney guides at €595,000, and given the recent surge in demand and prices for coastal properties, that’s not out of the equation when it comes to even site values, with €1m+ sum paid very recently for a handful of homes on Crosshaven, especially out Fountainstown/Myrtleville direction such as Med Jez (c €1.8m on Fountaintown’s Coast Road,) and Nirvana (€1.3m) above Myrtleville, both replacement dwellings.

Living room with fireplace from an earlier dwelling on this site

Villaflor is one of a handful of homes off the cul-de-sac road out to Weavers Point reached off an even smaller road, and homes out this way have had steady upgrades, none more so than one bought and redeveloped in the past decade by former Greencore CEO Patrick Coveney, a sea-salt himself, who cuts ties to the UK food giant next month after 14 years at its helm.

The current home is 1,450 sq ft with a main ground floor bedroom, two reception rooms with fireplaces, two attic/dormer bedrooms room under sloping ceilings with Veluxes. The grounds of one-third of an acre are tiered, with some Welsh slate capping old stone walls, thought to date to British officer use of this eyrie watch out spot (the ‘gun house’ used by Crosshaven’s Royal Cork Yacht Club for starting ocean yacht races is just 100 metres from Villaflor.)

Yachts Endgame and Trojan at Roches Point during the early stages of the Beaufort Cup race at the start of the 2016 Volvo Cork Week.

There are several steep paths nearby down to the rocky shoreline, with tiny beaches and bays around Weavers Point, Church Bay and Grabball Bay, with walks, swimming and fishing all popular local activities and Crosshaven’s shops, schools and services are a few minutes away by car, or a 20-minute walk.

VERDICT: The site could suit a home dropping down in tiers, as each level would get those ‘money-shot’ harbour mouth views.