Change of gear on Cork’s Carr’s Hill where golfer’s house is to the fore

WHEN the Heskin family moved into Ardarrig in 1962, this 1950-built house on Cork’s Carr’s Hill had a valley view of green fields and the old mills on the outskirts of Douglas village.

Over time, it saw the further growth of Douglas Golf Course on the hill behind it, the arrival of thousands of new homes in vast housing estates in front of it, behind it, and up the hill from it.

The launch this June of Cairn Homes’ long-awaited Bayly scheme, with 472 homes just up the hill is just the latest iteration, and saw all 30 homes released snapped up withing hours by buyers who queued overnight to get a chance to have a new home for Christmas ’24.

This one-off house also saw the academic, professional sporting prowess of the Heksin family, whose links to it after some 60+ years come to an end after the death of the well-known Ann Heskin last November.

She was both ‘”the real President of UCC,” and a top level national and international golfer, representing Ireland with her twin sister Oonagh long before the current lucrative PGA success of Irish player Leona Maguire, who hit highlights early on with her twin sister Lisa.

Apart from playing at a high level, at club (Douglas GC was over the back boundary almost from Ardarrig), national and international level as captain (leading the 1983 European Ladies Team Championship in Royal Waterloo, Belgium), Ann Heskin was also caption of the ILGU in 2005, and also filled senior administrative roles in the sport she’d embraced in the 1940s as a teenager in Midleton.

Set just above Douglas village – an easy walk away, or a few decent golf shots down the hill, and carrying the name Ardarrig shared with locale – it’s now for sale, on the market with Niamh Smith of Absolute Property who has it already gone over its €585,000 AMV, under offer at excess €700,000.

It’s got just over 1,300 sq ft as it stands and several neighbouring houses have done recent substantial upgrades. It’s on the village side of the western entrance to Maryborough Woods, and several hundred metres uphill is the Bayly scheme where A2 rated three-bed mid-terrace 1,245 sq ft townhouses launched this month from €445,000, and 1,485 sq ft four-beds were priced from €560,000: a wait list is now set up for disappointed buyers for the next release.

VERDICT: The site size alone carries a premium, not to mind the location and the aspect. The only question is what will it be bid to and who’ll come to the fore.