Homes are going for € 5m a pop in Sandycove, so how does € 1.8m sound? – ryan

House Shopping in Sandycove is operating at a level mere mortals are grappling with. Let’s call it the “berwind effect”. Features of the Phenomenon include Spending Multiple Millions on Regular Homes, that are not necessarily up for sale.

Since Sailing into Cinsale in His € 80m Superyacht in the Summer of 2023, US Billionaire James Berwind has gobbled up at least four Properties (not including Farmland in Nearby Ballinspittle), Paying, Ballpark, € 5m for Each.

While two were not run-of-the-mill homes, the others, in normal circumstances, would not be beyond the reach of normal people. But that’s not how things are currently rolling in cinsale.

The house that started the Buying Spree, Sprayfield in Sandycove, on 40 Acres, sold for in the order of € 4.75m.

Former Home to ex -ucc President Gerry Wrixon, The Graceful Georgian Mansion has been all but leveled since.

Berwind’s People Told this newspaper that the overhaul of the 200-year-old house was deemed necessary on foot of an engineer’s report.

The Next Megamoney Purchase was of a “Glass Box” Contemporary-Style Home Above Kinsale’s Superbly Scenic Scilly Walk.

Called Seaspray, The Price Register says It Sold Early Last Year for € 5.5m. It’s a base for Mr Berwind – when on terra firm – while his sprayfield home is being renovated. Seaspray is right behind the Up-For-Sale Harbor Bar, also on the scilly walk, which Mr. Berwind is also rumored to have an interest in.

Locals will tell you too that the animal-loving philanthropist spent another € 5m acquiring a cute waterside property in Sandycove. On airbnb as Sandycove cottage, it’s yet to appear on the price register. Its near neighbor – Valley House – A Dormer, is on the register, after Mr Berwind Bought it for € 4.99m late last year.

The Sandycove Acquisitions-Presumable Designed to Shore up the Elite Buyer’s Privacy-Are Properties That Border The 40-Acre Sprayfield Clifftop site where an animal sanctuary is planned, with goats already in evidence. It’s a phenomenal setting, even by cinsal standard. There are arguably few places to beat it on a sunny day: Blue Skies, Shimming Seas, the Sandy Inlet That Gives Sandycove its name. It’s easy to see what seduced Mr. Berwind.

The good news is that not everyone needs € 5m to live in Sandycove, even if the berwind effect is blowing prices in one direction only. In the case of the ardkilly home featured here, € 1.8m will do.

Set High Above Sandycove and with Spectacular Views from an Expansive Seaward-Facing Deck, this particular property bears all the hallmarks of owners who know their onions when it comes to interiors. They’ve a lifetime of experience, having traded in furniture for many years.

“Our backgrounds are in furniture and in interiors. We’d go to the trade fairs in paris every year and pick up stuff that you could not source here. You wouldn’t get the same child of finish in Ireland,” the couple.

One Half of the Duo, Fiona, is an interior designer and has her own shop, coastal concept, on main st, kinsale. Her vision for their home was clear-eyed. Think Cape Cod or Fashionable Montauk, and you’ll get the drift. Furniture guru tom imported some very nice pieces that work in harmony with the seaside vibe. A pair of antique ceiling fans in the open-plan lounge are to the for.

The couple bought the 1980s property about 20 years ago but didnt do a whole lot to it until it is pretty recently, due to busy lifestyle.

“We did a complete remodel about three years ago. We moved out and the builders were here for about nine months,” Fiona says.

The main changes were to the layout as the house was structurally sound. Walls were knocked to Create Bigger, Brighter Spaces. Munster joinery installed new windows and doors. A lot of insulation work was done, including internal slabing. New bathrooms were fitted. The main bathroom, created when two rooms were knocked together, is a stunner, straight from an interiors magazine, with fantastic his and her sinks, striking floor tiles, and an antique cabinet with Porthole Windows.

The cabinet is as pretty a piece as you will see, with stiff competition from the kitchen dresser and an antique storage bin on wheelway.

While the main bathroom can legitimately vie for best room in the house, the hands-down winner is the open plan lounge/dining/kitchen area where the best of the coastal light pours through.

Two sets of full-height sliding doors open to that expansive decp, which is blessed with a South-facing aspect. In Good Weather, The Deck Tops Everything.

It looks straight down over the scene that awaited Mr Berwind-Sea, Sand, and the Delightful indented coastline of Grass-Topped Sandy Cove Island, Beloved of Gulls and Adventurous Kids, who can make it there in no time in a kayak. Two herds of wild goats live there too, and send the occasional glegeul bleat in the direction of their more confined cousins ​​in Sprayfield.

Depending on the tide, it’s possible to wade to the Island from the slip at Sandycove, or to swim across. In fact the Island, a magnet for Sea Swimmers who test their mettle on the 1.6km round-island swim. To decompress afterwards, there’s a mobile sauna. Fiona is a swimmer and can make it to the slipway in two minutes via steps down the tiered garden of her home.

“We have a private walkway down and you can be at the waterfront in two minutes. It means you don’t need to walk the whole way around (on the main road) and you can be down in an instant,” the couple say.

They don’t have to queue to use the mobile sauna, as they have a sauna in their home, installed when the renovations were done in 2022. It’s in a cream that’s also used as an office, but could be a playroom or a gym.

Spread over three levels, the ardkilly property is entered on the middle floor, where the breathtaking coastal Vista take your breath away as you enter the open plan living area.

The kitchen, from Cullen Interiors, is only three years old. It’s Farrow & Ball de Nimes Blue, in Keeping with Coastal Hues.

At more than 320sq m, there’s a lot packed into this house, including a large bedroom on the middle floor, with a pale blue, Wood Panel, Feature Wall and Picture Windows.

The main bathroom is on this floor too, along with the home office. A door to the side of the house leads to a second, small deck area, with an outdoor wood-fired oven. The view is dazzling from this vantage point too.

Back indoors, an open tread staircase leads from the hallway to the top floor and the remaining three bedrooms – all doubles – all gloriously bright. To save you traipsing downstairs, there’s a bathroom on this floor too.

What you don’t expect when you enter the demolition driveway, is to find yet another level to this house, which drops down at the back, on the Seaward-facing side. This level is reached via outside steps but could be connected via an internal stairway, if it was once. It is currently a self-contained apartment, with open plan kitchen/living, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a laundry/utility room. Double doors from the apartment lead directly to a patio.

There’s great privacy at this sandycove home as it is well below the road, and surrounded on all sides by Tall Trees and Shrubbery. Set on three quarters of an acre, the opportunities for entertaining are mighty, whether from on high, on the deck, or below, on the sprawling lawn.

The Deck was an inspired addition during the 2022 Renovations, Made Safe by Pretty Fencing.

It’s as serene a spot as you will find. The Sea is the only backing track, along with the odd screech of an excitable gull.

Even though it’s just three years since fiona and tom Made all those positive changes to their ardkilly home, they feel it’s time to downsize. The house and gardens are too big for just two people. To sell their home, they’ve hired Johanna murphy, the daughter of the woman who sold it to them in the first place, Victoria Murphy.

“For me, ardkilly is a very versatile property. It has all the ingredients for an amazing family home, or a holiday home. It’s also a place where you can work from home because there’s so much space. Murphy Says.

For families with Young Kids, the easy access to the Beach is ideal and for families with adult children struggling to get on the property ladder, the separate apartment (76 sq m) is a great asset, MS Murphy Says.

She’s guided the house at € 1.8m and points out that the recent renovations also included re-wiring, new flooring, new radiators and a new driveway.

Sandycove is just a five minute drive from kinsale, although it feels like a world away from the bustle of the town and it smarinas.

MS murphy says it’s “a lovely spot to get away from it all, while also being part of a lovely community”.

“The beauty about Sandycove, in a nutshell, is that you can go to town for the buzz and then come home to your beachside sanctuary.”

: The (ber) winds are blowing in the right direction for anyone selling property in Sandycove. Super House with outsourness interiors in a proudly pretty coastal Olocation.