Kayaking? Rowing? Indulge your watery passions at Cobh's Marino Villas

A LOW line of houses slinks close to the water’s edge in Rushbrooke, near enough to pull a boat close at high tide and hop aboard for a spin around the inner harbour.

Nothing comes between this row of houses and the water, built in the mid 19th century as holiday homes for the well-heeled of Cork, who reached their destination via horse and cart and railway.

The last home in this harbourside row, No 10, Sandpiper House, featured in Property & Home one year ago, just after the pandemic kicked off, and has remained at the mercy of the great lockdown roundabout, still up for sale for €495,000 with Johanna Murphy of Johanna Murphy & Son Estate Agents.

Ms Murphy now brings a second home in Marino Villas to market, No 2, with quite a different history to Sandpiper House, which had links to Suttons Coals and to a Major O’Donovan, an ex-British Army man, who grew potatoes on land in Cobh. Mysteriously, Sandpiper House was also rumoured to have an invite from Buckingham Place buried deep in its chimney breast, a controversial keepsake these days, with the Royal Family under fire from within and without.

No 2 has a more republican past if the rumour is true — that it has a bullet buried in its walls, fired through its beautiful bay window during the War of Independence. What prompted such violence is unclear.

Built in 1862, it was home to the railway engineer, an ideal location, given it’s directly across from Carrigaloe train station, so if any works required an engineer along the rail line, all he had to do was cross the road and jump aboard. The same goes for whoever buys No 2 — they can reach Cork city via rail link in a 20-minute commute.

No 2 comes to market for considerably less than No 10 (€380,000), but it does need more work, and, unlike Sandpiper House, it doesn’t come with a sunroom.

The 130 sq m detached home is a four-bed in need of modernisation, but with the bonus of a 400 sq ft two-storey unit alongside.

The unit currently operates as a garage at road level and storage underneath, but Ms Murphy says it could be converted into a self-contained two-bed, two bathroom unit.

Equally, it could be re-purposed as a home office or a granny flat or a kid’s den at ground level, while keeping the garage overhead.

“There’s any number of options associated with this unit,” Ms Murphy says, adding that planning permission was granted in 2010 to construct an extension to the side of the house, incorporating the unit, but has since lapsed. “It could be re-ignited,” Ms Murphy says.
She describes the house as a “structurally sound blank canvas” with some very nice features, including a patio door from the large kitchen-dining room to the front garden, overlooking the harbour.

Marino Villas homes appeal to those who like spending time on the water, Ms Murphy says.

“The location is ideal for kayaking and waterfront properties are hard to come by, so No 2 should generate plenty of interest.” While it doesn’t have a pontoon — some of the other homes in Marino Villas do — she says a running mooring would work perfectly.

“You could pull the boat in on full tide and jump in,” Ms Murphy says.

What it does have is aspect — it faces west across the inner harbour — so on a fine day, anyone sitting out front will have the benefit of sunshine “from noon until sunset”.

VERDICT: Opportunity to acquire a waterfront property at a good price.