Sail of the century: Monkstown’s Marine Villas, where they sported and sailed

SAILS, as well as sales, feature at Cork’s Marine Villas, a run of good-sized semi-detached 19th century homes facing the waters of Cork harbour, and Cobh’s Great Island: it’s a paradise for sea salts, always has been.

It was just so – to a competitively intense degree – at No 9, Marine Villas which  became for a period  the home of a sailing club, the Munster Model Yacht Club.

That club was founded at a boom time locally for yachting in the wide expanse of Cork harbour, in 1872: the MMYC/Corinthian Yacht Club, was aimed at Cork’s amateur sailors at a time when some of Cork’s other boating clubs were more elitist and for the monied class who could afford to pay crews to win them honours.

Old records show the Munster Model Yacht Club operating out of No 9 for a number of years: the link turned up on the deeds when the current owner bought it in 1999.

Later, the club was homeless for a while and subsequently moved to Crosshaven in 1932, and today’s vendors of this water-facing home have old photographs of sails drying in glasshouses in the back of clubby No 9.

Cork’s Monkstown itself is characterised by its fine 19th century terraces and villas, crossing from Victorian to Edwardian in style and substance, and behind Marine Vilas is the 1880s Gordon Vilas, taller red-brick builds, with other terraces left and right as well as detached whoppers, running around towards Raffeen Creek, now a wildfowl sanctuary.

But, only a  few of Monkstown’s homes are as close to the water as the aptly-named Marine Villas.

No 9’s vendor, who bought in ’99, is steeped in the location via his McDonnell and Fitzpatrick parental links, with his folks’ families having owned the Monkstown Inn (McDonnells) and the Seaview Bar/the Glen/Ensign (on the Fitzpatrick side) where once they had plans to open a small hotel there.

No 9’s vendor, the 50-something Michael McDonnell grew up in No 7 and “I’d come home from school and pick up my sail board and just cross the road and get in the water, I didn’t even need the slipway on full tides,” he says, having also sailed the skittish 505 dinghies and National 18s out of Monkstown in years past. 

His family too has more distant links to the classic Cork Harbour One Design class: Michael’s great grandfather John Clehane, a carpenter, owned one of the six extant (out of ten built) examples of the Fife-designed 30’ craft, winning the Lipton Cup in the Maureen around the 1920s, with the race finishing in Monkstown Bar and the trophy (now missing in the US) displayed to local acclaim at the Ensign, and later on the sideboard of No 7 Marine Villas.

Mr McDonnell is upping anchor now from No 9, and it’s for sale with estate agent Michael O’Donoghue of REA O’Donoghue Clarke who guides the 2,400 sq ft home at €575,000.

He points to its period feel, water views and easy access to a host of local amenities, including schools cafes, bars, tennis and golf clubs and, of course, sailing opportunities at the Sand Quay, the ‘new’ marina nearby and from anchorage and berths off the Monkstown shoreline.

Despite a G BER rating, No 9’s  in good overall condition with some feature exposed stone in the entry/porch, basement and up at the attic level.

It has a multi-use basement room, where a Munster Rugby flag hangs in a gym next to a wine cellar, has good reception rooms, feature two-storey canted bay windows, slightly dated kitchen and four bedrooms, bathroom with free-standing cast iron bath, plus characterful attic rooms behind a steep gable front.

There’s a long front drive, a big lawn to the front and smaller garden behind, plenty of space for cars or parking up a dinghy, and for landlubbers there’s a bus stop close by too.

Meanwhile, No 8 Marine Villas just across the drive is currently a ‘work in progress,’ bought by a US-based builder with Cork connections.

No 8 had been on the market as a C2 BER home of similar size with a €595,000 AMV, but has yet to feature on the Price Register. No 5 Marine Villas sold in 2014 for €382,000 in a raw state and also has had major work done to it since.

VERDICT: Whoever buys No 9 will surely love sailing, and the sea – or, just loves looking at water.