It doesn’t happen too often, even at the seaside, but walk into the livingroom at Seascape and you feel as if you’re floating. Or sailing.
This five-bed property sits halfway up Ardbrack, the ridge that runs from Kinsale over to Summercove. It's a road that's peppered with sleek modernist-style houses, and is frequently known as Kinsale's 'Golden Mile' for the prices of the property, as much as the net worth of some of their owners.
For those who prefer to navigate by pubs rather than euros, it’s also pretty much equidistant from The Spaniard and The Bulman, and anyone who has already discovered what must be Ireland’s most picture-perfect harbour town, will know that these are places to be conjured with.
So too are the views.
Gaze out over the water to take in the vista from Charles Fort, to James Fort, to the pretty harbour itself, which is less than 20 minutes stroll away (the owner says she can do it in 10!). She fell in love with the spot while staying in a B&B originally located on the site, on a trip to see if she could turn her dream of leaving Dublin with her family into a reality.
“We thought if we don’t make the move now, we never will,” she says.
She did more than that, and managed to buy not only the B&B, but the adjacent site too. Now, Seascape, runs to a bright and airy 323sq m (3,476sq ft). The house was built in 2008 and sits on just under a third of an acre. This is landscaped in sun-trap patios, terraces and gardens that ramble down to the Scilly Walk below – a waterfront path that will bring you to Summercove on one side, and Kinsale on the other.
Inside, the layout locates the main living spaces at entrance level, and four of the bedrooms, including the master, plus a cosy snug with an open fire, below. Because of the sloping site, this means the master bedroom, and the second bedroom both have terraces outside, as does the snug.
Upstairs find the open plan kitchen/dining/family room, where cleverly angled windows maximise the views. There’s also a study on this level, a smaller study /playroom off the kitchen, plus a further room, which the family call the piano room, but which could easily accommodate a sixth bedroom.
The final bedroom is up here, so the house is also flexible enough to comfortably sleep anyone who doesn’t enjoy stairs, making it future-proof as well as highly desirable. Grown-up children mean that the family is now downsizing, though nothing could persuade them to leave the area.
At €2.45m with Sherry FitzGerald, this is a house with clean lines, big windows, lots of polished oak flooring, tons of storage, and one of the most desirable addresses in Kinsale. Sail on.
