What's in a name? €3.25m Cove Cottage is indeed by a cove, but clearly is far from being a cottage

1991-built Cove Cottage is an architect designed Summercove home with commanding views of Kinsale harbour ....and of visiting superyachts

Sublime setting of Summercove's Cove Cottage: Sinead Sinnott of Sheehy Bros guides the home at €3.25 million

Sat, 15 Jul, 2023 - 12:46

Tommy Barker reports

Summercove, Kinsale
€3.25 million
Size	262 sq m (2,830 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	B3

IT’S almost all about the views at Kinsale’s Cove Cottage, and the location is pretty top drawer also — on a height looking over the ocean and the mouth of Kinsale harbour, past the 17th century Charles Fort and, of late, also privy to the comings and goings of some of the world’s private superyachts, with the most recent ocean-crossing arrivals in the €80m to €200m price bracket.

Superyacht Kaos, owned by one of the world’s wealthiest woman, Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie, visited Summercove this summer

The €200m boat Kaos, owned by Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie, anchored off Summercove by Charles Fort and by Sandycove, said to have been too big (or too valuable?), to take into the harbour proper where such boats are routinely watched from multi-million euro homes along Ardbrack, where over a dozen houses have fetched €1m+ and where the current price record is €3.5m.

The town’s very top sales have now tipped over €5m in several cases, yet their very considerable value (amongst Munster’s dearest homes) is “almost” in the ha’penny league compared to such floating palaces.

Cove Cottage is off the road from Ardbrack into Summercove, in a prized position

Meanwhile, the owner of another €80m superyacht Scout, US billionaire James Berwind has been locally associated (but as yet unconfirmed) with a purchase agreed on a €4.5m-€5m property on the other side of Kinsale, at Sandycove.

Superyacht Scout seen in Kinsale's Castlepark last month, with Summercove and Charles Fort in the distance. The boat's owner has been linked to a multi-million euro Kinsale house agreed purchase

Into these rarefied waters comes Cove Cottage in the past fortnight, a modern home, built over 30 years ago by a Cork businessman and his family who located to Summercove on this plum 0.36-acre plot, regularly updated, and highly comfortable inside and out on private landscaped grounds above Summercove with Victorian-style glasshouse, sun terraces, by the pier, cove, and the renowned Bulman bar and restaurant, getting an impressive B3 BER.

Architect-designed by now-veteran Cork designer Bill Brady of Wm Hill & Co, it spreads to just over 2,800 sq ft with an ornate roof profile; with curves, small clay tiles, and French bonnet-style tiles at the ridges and dormers, and has all of the main rooms (bar the formal dining room) up front for the light and vistas on the doorstep, with the sea at its feet under rocky outcrops.

Supremely comfortable, it has several fireplaces in the centre core, an office with bow window at one end, a dual-aspect kitchen (with Aga) at the other and side-by-side living room and lounge/family room.

A curved stairs leads to the dormer-style first floor, with two en suite bedrooms at either end and with two more in between, all with harbour/sea views.

Selling agent Sinead Synott of Sheehy Brothers says Cove Cottage is impressive and spacious, beautifully maintained and immaculate, with well-proportioned rooms almost all of which have panoramic views.

She guides at €3.25m, so it’s very much in the upper price echelon in Kinsale even right now (Sheehys sold Constantia Farm above Compass Hill last year for over €5m). Closer by the water’s edge is The Anchorage, an early 2023 arrival with a €2.5m AMV (one owned by actor Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), still for sale, while gone sale agreed across the road is Ringcurran House, which had a 2022 €1.85m AMV.

One of the harbour’s most handsome homes, the Victorian Duncarrig House, a few doors away from Cove Cottage and owned years back by children’s books authors Colin and Jackie Hawkins, made €2.35m back in 2010.