Make your tracks to €565k Ashfield on Cork's old Muskerry tram line

On track: Carrigrohane detached home by Healy's Bridge on the old Muskerry light rail line has been fully upgraded inside

Detached Ashfield is near the Anglers' Rest and Healy's Bridge, along the old Muskerry tram line which wound up in the 1930s

Healy's Bridge, Carrigrohane, Cork
€565,000
Size	14 sq m (1,500 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	2
BER	C2

BILLED as “a blend of old and new” is Ashfield, a detached family home with up to four bedrooms, along the old route of the former Muskerry tram in Cork’s Carrigrohane.

Set near Healy’s Bridge and one of a row of individual homes built from the 1970s, Ashfield has been significantly upgraded in recent years, says its selling agent Jeremy Murphy who guides at €565,000 for a relocating vendor who has many years connection with the house.

Ashfield exterior

“It’s like a new home inside an older structure: it has been rewired, replumbed, has a brand new kitchen and redone bathrooms, and has triple glazing too,” says Mr Murphy, adding, “whoever buys this home won’t have to do a thing to in, just move themselves in.”

It’s freshly decorated and presented, on a mature site backed by Temple Hill too, has electric gate access, and comes with a detached garage/building.

It’s going to have a wide appeal to a cross-section of traders up, and first viewings have started: “I’m here every day, it’s proven to be very popular.”

Open/linked rooms

Interest is coming in the main from families and its western, outer suburban setting makes it attractive to those in a wide catchment that incudes Blarney, Tower, and Ballincollig, while Apple HQ at Hollyhill is to the city side on a height, reached via Healy’s Bridge, as is Kerry Pike and Clogheen.

It’s within a five minute walk to the rejuvenated Anglers Rest Bar and restaurant, while those of an historical bent will appreciate the fact the road running by Ashfield was once the route of the Muskerry tram/light rail, while the adjacent Healy’s Bridge had a station just after Leemount and Carrigrohane, with routes to Coachford, Donoughmore, and Blarney.

The Muskerry line ran from the 1880s to 1934 and proving that ‘there’s little new under the sun’, there are plans for a LUAS-like light rail to run 17kms from Ballincollig through the city centre and past Kent Station to Mahon.

Oops: collision between Muskerry Tram and a steamroller attracts attention on the Carrigrohane Straight Road  in 1927.

That light rail link is proposed for delivery by 2040 under Metropolitan Cork plans which, if it goes to schedule, could well see the occupants of Ashfield making use of the line as it runs out from MTU to a park and ride station west of Ballincollig.

For car owners today, there’s plenty of space to the front of Ashfield; the garage to the back is now more like a home office/gym/play room, while the house itself has a slightly unusual ground floor plan.

New kitchen: nothing to do but move in, says selling agent Jeremy Murphy

Off a porch entrance and hall is a living room with large sliding doors to the side of the house, and this room is part-open to a full width kitchen/dining room behind, with gleaming white kitchen units topped with flecked white marble, with a second large sliding door to the rear of the house.

On the far side is a further living room, or ground floor bedroom four, but no utility (do the laundry in the garage?) or guest WC at this level.

Above is a freshly done family bathroom, and one of the three upstairs bedrooms has an en suite, and there’s two Stira access options to the attic.

VERDICT: So many home hunters want a place they can just walk into, Ashfield should do very well for its vendors at or above the €565k AMV.

The Bowers by Healy's Bridge Carrigrohane is sale agreed at close to €1 million

A nearby home which featured here some months ago, The Bowers, has reportedly gone ‘sale agreed’ around its €950,000 launch guide, but that was for a far larger, c 2,700 sq ft five bed late 1990s architect designed house.