Drop anchor at Kinsale's so-chic €2.5m Anchorage in Summercove hotspot
Set sale: Glorious setting for The Anchorage, Summercove, Kinsale, for sale for €2.5m via Engel & Volkers
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Summercove, Kinsale, Cork |
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€2.5 million |
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Size |
220 sq m (2,350 sqft) |
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Bedrooms |
3 |
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Bathrooms |
3 |
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BER |
E1 |
YOU’D hardly get closer to the water’s edge than at the aptly-named Anchorage – you can fish, or swim and dive off the boundary wall of this Victorian Kinsale harbour home…just make sure the tide is in, as there’s a shingle beach right below it at other times.
The end house in a row of just three homes at the foot of the steep hill down into Summercove, just before the famed Bulman bar and restaurant and the pier is at the epicentre of this most pretty of seaside spot: google images of Summercove, and it’s nearly in every image that comes up, and “not a day goes by that someone isn’t photographing it."
So says international businessman Robert O’Rourke, its proud co-owner since 2005 along with his wife Sylvia Guerin who employs ten at her Rogue Fitness gym in Kinsale. Both are proud Corkonians to their deep roots (though Robert was born in the US to a Scottish father, reared in Bishopstown with his five siblings.)
When I was younger, I used to sit on the wall there on the pier, in front of the Bulman with a summer pint, and dream of ling here, and in Summercove,” he says from inside the comforts of the considerably upgraded, and uniquely-sited, Anchorage.
So it came to pass, by a fairly circuitous route that saw O’Rourke work in the upper echelons of global and corporate giants in US, Europe, the UK , China, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. Oh, and around Ireland too, with a career spanning companies like Motorola, Intel, DHL, Sensormatic, Tyco and Sanmina.
Fed up of travel, he stepped off that hectic roundabout in 2014 to be self employed, in sectors spanning sustainable development, and aquaculture, and he and Sylvia also are engaged in property development in small projects and investment, several of them in Kinsale, where his parent retired to live some years back.
The couple had been living in Kinsale when the Anchorage came for sale in 2004/2005, owned at that time by the owners of the Spaniard bar and just a while after Irish developer Gerry Gannon bought the Bulman bar for c €2m, on the Anchorage’s doorstep, and significantly upgraded.
Previous owners had been Hollywood actor Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and her Irish husband Pat O’Connor.
Mastrantonio’s opus included playing Maid Marion in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, with Kevin Costner, Scarface, The Colour of Money, the Perfect Storm and the Abyss. Bafta winner director Pat O’Connor’s own work includes Cal, The Ballroom of Romance and Circle of Friends.
Being on view at the Anchorage’s seaside terrace from the pier doesn’t bother the current occupants, nor did it bother the previous residents, let it be noted: “Kinsale people aren’t that impressed by big names,” O’Connor, is on record saying. “they have a wonderful ‘live and let live’ attitude you don’t find in too many places anymore.” Indeed.
Kinsale continues to attract sometimes famous folk, from poets to singers such as Tori Amos, Michael Jackson went on a scout-about, and in earlier decades Ray Davies of the Kinks lived here, as did Andy Summers from The Police.
More recently, it’s the high-net worth brigade swamping Kinsale’s upper end of the property market, with sales in the €4-5 million category last year alone, and with another biggie due to close out very shortly along the strip from Summercove tot the town via Scilly.
Who’ll surface for The Anchorage this time around? Irish. Overseas? Returning expat? Other?
It comes to an off-season market this weekend with estate agent Ron Kruger of the international agency Engel & Volkers and its Kinsale office (it’s also in Kenmare right now), and he guides at an even-sounding €2.5 million.
He mightn’t say it out loud, but it’s one that’s possibly hard to value: it has waterfrontage rather than grounds and gardens, has great charm, but only three bedrooms and little extension scope. There’s a decent 2,350 sq ft, plus parking for three cars in a lock-up nearby, and enormous interior charm.
And, then there’s the sheer proximity of the sea, a lure to many, a disincentive to others, especially anyone who might suffer from seasickness, as, standing by the kitchen’s canted bay window can really give the impression of being at sea, on a boat.
firmly anchored.
For the right buyer, it will be the perfect fit and anchor dropping point, and it even comes with a mooring 200 metres in front off the south-west aspected period home which is quietly calling out for a ladder down its sea wall to the beach (the smaller house next door had derricks for launching and raising small dinghies back in the day.)
Price comparisons? Hard enough, really. The same E&V agent recently took on the listing of Edgwater, next door to the Trident Hotel in the centre of Kinsale harbour, another waterfronting home (the clue’s in the name), with a pontoon and a price reduced to €1.7 million from the €2.25m it was listed at over two years ago with other agents.
An unexpectedly rapid sale was the €4.8m paid two years ago for Raffeen House by Scilly, via joint agents that include Engel & Volkers and Colliers. It had been owned by Colum O’Sullivan and family of the Cully & Sully food brand. Ironically, its US-based buyer who purchased for holiday use has fitted a new kitchen among other costly changes and is also converting an old boathouse with the property for guest use.
Kinsale has more €1m+house sales than any other Cork or Munster address, and even a site can command €1m, such as is the case at elevated Ardbrack.
Summercove has had a few €1m+ sales and listings: one is currently on the market at Ringcurran, a home at Haven Hill made €1.3m in 2018, while back in 2010 the sublime and imperiously set Duncarrig House made €2.35 million.
Second next door to The Anchorage, the Victorian Duncarrig House had been owned by childrens’ books author and illustrators Colin and Jackie Hawkins, and was one of the most handsome homes in the whole harbour.
Duncarrig is set high above the water, and as it’s lower The Anchorage gets more direct contact with the sea at peak storm times, with its slate front having its face washed by spray, as does the core area of Summercove, the Bulman itself and some adjacent homes, several of them recently built.
There are dramatic looking images of storm-driven waves hitting the pier but the c 120-year old Anchoragehas proven robust.
In the current owners two decades’ time here the house has stayed dry, the central sun room has been rebuilt and reinforced with steels set deep into the ground, and some of the original Victorian sash windows (such as in the kitchen bay) have outer, protective secondary thick Perspex covers as water does get thrown up at them.
The exterior sun terrace, with rail and marine grade stainless steel lights in the low boundary wall gets water sloshing up but has ‘scuppers’ or drains so it flows out as quickly, says Robert who has a grá in any case for the sea, having crossed the Atlantic in his 33’ yacht and the couple also have a home on West Cork’s Long island, facing Schull….the sea, again, is the draw.
Inside, the Anchorage all is quite serene. The back of the house, by the roadside, pays no notice to the setting, with stairs and entry hall back here in the core, and all of the best rooms make a connection to the sea and the view and the ever-changing, always engaging passing by the windows of craft, or water, or birds, or on occasions, seals and dolphins (human sea swimmers increasingly too, especially since covid-19.)
Since their arrival here back around 2005, the couple Robert and Sylva have extended to the side, and replaced and strengthened the central sun room, and took down a dividing wall in the dining room so that it, too, gets a water view.
They extended the kitchen around 2015, matching the timeless, quality solid ash units that had been here before them, and kept the oil Aga range also that had preceded them.
The kitchen has the feel of a place where serious cooking is done, and entertaining (there’s a back-lit wall of wine bottles holding firm, while a serious Fisher and Paykel fridge freezer promises an abundance of further sustenance, and food, also.
The owners got furniture makers C&D Forde in Cork city to match the ash in the kitchen, and they also made the dining room furniture and other pieces for them.
Builder was Maurice Coughlan from West Cork and they used Kinsale-based architect Richard Rainey for the alterations, and they’ve worked with both in the past on other property renovation and commercial properties in the past in Kinsale town, and elsewhere.
The home has three reception rooms, in a slight split-level layout, with central sun room, strongly glazed, with walnut trim top and bottom plus three Veluxes overhead, a formal dining room, study/library lounge with stove, and main living room with limestone fireplace, complete with leather-topped club fender seat.
There’s a touch of the gentleman’s club about the décor, too, with items sourced from work and travels abroad (a huge map of the world hangs in the study), bespoke pieces, and items and paints from interiors shop Embellish, in Skibbereen.
A nautical theme pervades too, but is understated. A particularly nice touch are old brass and stainless steel portholes set into old stone walls, and wired up with a gentle glow light inside, while for a more modern connection, there’s wiring and speakers for sophisticated Bose sound system while the large TV screen in the living room displays high pixel quality images when not in use. On the Examiner’s visit, it showed a stunning beach scene from the skies, a segull's eye view.
Even more engaging to the eye is the collection of framed Banksy art prints in the hall, stairs and landing, working as a theme and visual link as you ascend to the upper floors, again part-split level, where there’s a master bedroom suite mid ships, with retained old cast iron fireplace (not used, save for candles) and there are steps down to a walk-in dressing room.
This level has the privatebathroom across from the sleeping section, where the builder smartly suggested lining the thick wall either side of a small window with mirrors to frame (and befuddle) the views to the Bullman buoy while standing in the shower.
The top floor has two further bedrooms, comfortable ones, with fantastic views from ships’ cabin top deck-like dormer windows, while two tiny gable windows offer glimpses to the south towards the Bulman bar.
Overall condition is shipshape and Bristol fashion, in a seaside Irish setting that would not look out of place in thronged UK beauty spots in the likes of Devon and Cornwall, but the views out are the giveaway.
To the right is Kinsale town, harbour and marinas, across the water is James Fort and the beach by the Dock, and to the left is the unmistakable bulk of Charles Fort, a bastion built in the 17th century, also waterfront, and standing even more proud, now lit up at night, adding a glow to the favoured residents at The Anchorage.
VERDICT: The only way you’d be closer to the water in Kinsale is on an actual boat.
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