View of Cork Harbour from Cobh's Mount Crozier for €1m+

Vista Mar was flipped to take advantage of the views from the daytime rooms

Cobh, Co Cork
€1m+
Size	800 sq ft + flat 1400 sq ft
Bedrooms	5 + 1
Bathrooms	7 + 1
BER	B3

The hilltop site that Vista Mar sits on was once a market garden, visited by a young boy who would years later come to own it and build a home there.

“I remember coming here with my Dad. It was owned by a sister and brother and we would buy cabbage plants and lettuce plants from them,” he says.

A fine, elevated site in Mount Crozier, with excellent views towards the harbour, it is sunlit and well-ventilated, ideal for growing fruit and veg. The site was a decent size too, one-third of an acre, high above Cobh town, and it was private and secure, ringed by an old stone wall.

The memory of it stayed with the man and when the land came up for sale many years later, he bought it.

“I had it for about 10 years before we went ahead with the build,” he says.

The self-build that emerged two years later measured 4,800 sq ft and the house was flipped to take advantage of the views from the daytime rooms. He named it Vista Mar, (Ocean View), because you can see the harbour from its high vantage point, and enjoy it all the more from the 392 sq ft south-facing balcony, accessible from a gallery off the staircase or via patio doors from the first-floor sunroom.

He did everything on a large scale: cathedral-style ceiling in the huge upstairs living room running from front to back of house and including inbuilt bar; vaulted ceiling in the equally large kitchen/dining room, and an adjoining utility room with a fire escape; a second sitting room to the rear upstairs (a kids’ den?); five bedrooms downstairs, each with ensuite and two more bathrooms; an exercise room/boot room inside a separate downstairs entrance.

He later added to all of this, converting a detached garage into very substantial, 1,400 sq ft separate accommodation, with a heavily-glazed barn-door-style feature entrance, and open plan living downstairs, including a feature brick wall around the fireplace in the living area, with kitchen to the rear, and behind that, a bathroom. The overhead mezzanine level, reached via spiral stairs, is a fine size and there are veluxes for extra light. Back downstairs, there are double patio doors to a small patio in the back garden, which backs onto the playing pitches of Coláiste Muire secondary school, a guarantee that there will never be any housing development to the rear. A high wall ensures privacy and that wall continues around three sides of the site, separating it from a small estate out front, where the first bishop of Cobh’s house is visible, Mount Crozier, which gave its name to the area.

The thinking behind the garage conversion was that one day, the man and his wife would downsize to live there, with their children taking on the main house, but the children are leading their own lives now, so the couple decided to move on.

They will leave behind a whopper of a home in an excellent location with a garden that the original market gardeners would surely have approved of – beautifully planted along the old stone wall – with an area also set aside for king-sized barbecues.

Joint selling agents for Vista Mar, with which offers in excess of €1m being sought, are Johanna Murphy of Murphy & Sons estate agents and Liz Hannon of English Auctioneers and they say Vista Mar is in one of the best locations in Cobh town, high enough to enjoy the returning liner traffic after a two years hiatus, and close enough to town to stroll in.

Ms Murphy says it’s ideal for intergenerational living because of the granny flat, which she says could also be used as a pilates studio/hair salon/home office or as accommodation for adult kids who can’t yet afford to buy their own home.

VERDICT: A king-size house designed to make the most of super views, ideal for family, conveniently close to town.