Inside €1.2m turnkey home for sale in Myrtleville with Atlantic views and outdoor space

With panoramic sea views, luxe interiors, and a smart layout, Distant Waves offers turnkey family living on Cork’s coast

Distant Waves, Myrtleville

Myrtleville, Co Cork
€1.2m
Size	233 sq m (2508 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	B2

IN the good ol’ days, you didn’t need to be a moneybags to live in the Fountainstown/Myrtleville/Fennells Bay nexus, but the times they are a changin’. House prices in the area were galvanised by the small matter of covid, when everyone wanted to live by the sea. Then, the exotically named Medjez-El-Bab started a trend, when it cruised past the €1m house price mark on the Coast Rd, the ‘golden mile’ that links these beach communities.

On the ocean side of Coast Rd, Medjez caused quite a stir back in 2021, when it was floated on the market with a €1.8m price tag. Was the Coast Road getting ahead of itself? The market’s response suggested not. 

Distant Waves, Myrtleville

Medjez sold in February 2022 for €1.794m, as close as makes no difference to the price for those in the big money league.

Medjez still holds the record for most expensive home on the Coast Rd, but the Property Price Register shows it’s now in good company. In 2023, a house called Sea La Vie, also on the ocean side of Coast Rd, sold for €1.2m. 

Two additional Coast Rd properties crop up on the register in the past two years as having sold for €1m plus.

The onetime aura of affordability in these coastal communities is fast evaporating. Long gone are the days when Ford motor factory workers would build holiday homes from wooden shipping crates. Stand now on the golden sand of Myrtleville beach, or on the stones at Fountainstown, and look around you: You’ll be gobsmacked by the sophistication and style of some of the homes.

These days, it’s all about knock, rebuild, and upgrade, or start from scratch. Two homes currently on the market that started from scratch in this South Cork coastal setting are the €1.3m Whistler, on Coast Rd, built by the O’Brien family, owners of the now-closed Bunnyconnellan bar and restaurant and the very much open The Lodge (formerly Pine Lodge); and Distant Waves, featured here.

Distant Waves, Myrtleville

 High on the hill above The Lodge, off the road that runs to Myrtleville Beach, Distant Waves has a price tag of €1.2m. While it’s not on the Coast Rd, it is at a height that delivers a clear line of sight to the water, serving up dazzling ocean views. 

View from Distant Waves

Very sensibly, its owners went big on picture windows on the seaward-facing side.

 Even more judiciously, they decided against internal walls on the same side, instead creating a great, big, open-plan living/dining/kitchen room, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a stunning coastal outlook.

“They had planned three separate rooms, but they opted, instead, for open plan and you can see why,” says selling agent Michael O’Donovan, of Savills. The sea — and all its busy maritime activity — is the reason why. You can drink it in from every downstairs, seaward-facing window across the bright and airy ground floor. It’s a view to luxuriate in and no better place to do so than from this hillside home, where creature comforts are at a premium.

Distant Waves was built by the current owners on a greenfield site in 2012 and money wasn’t spared. You can see it in the monkey tails and swan’s neck detail of the mahogany staircase.

You can see it in the marble kitchen worktops and large island unit.

You can see it in the deluxe bathroom fit-outs.

You can see it in the upscale, curved patio area with glass balustrade, where you’ll find a brick-built outdoor kitchen space, a pizza oven, and a built-in BBQ above a porcelain, tiled floor.

 As outdoor dining settings go, it’s top tier.

 The sun is doing its bit on the day the Irish Examiner visits and, with the tropical trees and the view from the patio, you could be anywhere.

All this rear outdoor entertainment area — which includes a water feature — is enclosed, secure for children and not overlooked. You can keep an eye on the smallies too in the lawn across the way. It’s surrounded by perimeter fencing and hedging, with lots of room for swings and slides.

 A garage to the rear is so well finished that it looks ripe for conversion to additional accommodation, pending planning permission. It has several windows, including a semi-circular feature window on the gable end, and it’s at first-fix stage, with plumbing and electrics. 

The upstairs is already floored and partitioned. The potential is there for separate accommodation or a home office/workshop/studio/gym.

Distant Waves, up a steeply sloping driveway, behind electronic gates, is, as Mr O’Donovan says, “in excellent decorative order” and comes with nicely landscaped front gardens.

A room to the front of the house could be a snug or a playroom or a fourth bedroom, as it has no sea views.

 Upstairs, three bedrooms are all large doubles. 

The main is a suite and has double doors to a balcony and an en suite to die for. 

Two of the bedrooms have terrific sea views and picture windows to frame them.

Mr O’Donovan says much consideration was given to the layout, and rooms least in use are at the side of the house with no sea view: eg, the downstairs guest loo and utility room, which are off the kitchen.

At 2,500 sq ft, Distant Waves is a fine, roomy home, ideal for a family.

It comes with a green-mortgage-friendly energy rating, (B2) helped along by underfloor heating.

At €1.2m, Distant Waves is not cheap, but, as Mr O’Donovan points out, it’s turnkey, so no additional time/cost are needed for upgrades. Its ready-to-go status will be a big attraction for families trading up at a time of unpredictable building costs.

“I think it will appeal to the local market, families living in Carrigaline and Crosshaven, who are looking to trade up, but it will also attract people relocating back to Cork.

“We are seeing a lot of that at the moment, the draw of the coast and the lifestyle that goes with it,” Mr O’Donovan says.

How Whistler and Distant Waves fare will be of strong interest to local property owners as an indicator of what’s achievable in a post-covid market. Signs are it’s not stagnating.

VERDICT: Expect bidding to get competitive