Newbie (hopefully) to West Cork..

leebee77

yoo hoo!! I am looking for any advice on where to live in County Cork!!! I am trying to narrow it down but wanting to live coastal. So the main thing is that i hope to attend UCC next year..I have an 8 year old boy and being from the Scottish Highland I do not wish to live in the city. I therefore need to find a beautiful, semi rural village/small town with good primary schools, community spirit, and be bonny. I'm a single mother and want to live somewhere where i will be able to make friends and not be too isolated...the Degree is for 4yrs!! We both enjoy outdoor pursuits so a place that has varied activities would be a bonus...I need to be able to commute to UCC by car.
I know this is a big ask and will prob have to compromise but ANY advice and info would be sooooo appreciated!!! Slan

JP Liz

Kinsale and Clonakilty are coastal and about 1 hour drive to Cork City

TheDriver

I would say no to Clon and Kinsale because they are expensive (presuming Mum at college isn't loaded!) and community spirit in Kinsale is absolute crap! Better off picking a village like Grenagh or Kilworth, Belgooly etc?

Balmed Out

Everywhere coastal is pricey as your competing with people who are buying summer houses.

TheDriver

P.S. UCC by car????? You may want to talk to someone first and theres not a lot of parking anywhere near UCC

leebee77

thanks everyone for u info...so avoid kinsale and perhaps the coast in general!! right enough ive checked Daft.ie & coastal property to rent is pretty steep....so anyone have any ideas for inland villages/wee towns? someone had mentioned Blarney to me before..any views on that.
oh also i have parking sorted in Cork city at a mates house!

TheDriver

blarney or tower or grenagh are all close with plenty of rental, glanworth etc are all fairly handy too with lots of houses for rent there, look up the map on google earth coz theres a lot of villages up north cork

thebouldwhacker

congrats on your decision to live in Cork:D
And well done getting the college course:D

Have you thought of living in Cork City????? I only ask cos is a pretty small city and to be honest was my fav city to live in. Rent is cheap(ish-ish) and if you have a car then the coast is only a short drive. Plenty of scots living in cork (although most scots i know don't like meeting other scots... they do ney trustem)

Anyway I made the move to west cork and it is great but as an ex ucc student myself i don't think i would have enjoied the drive every morn and evening (its dark and bloody dangrous)... essays study etc. And jobs can be hard enough to get around here esp parttime work fitting around a kid!

The towns around cork city are ok but the trouble now a days is that they are all commuting towns so personally i wouldn't rate them (sorry to offend anyone:eek:, but I 'm from one myself and i'm not sure i'd enjoy moving to ireland to live in one of them....)

you should have a look at the city, see how it suits and the west is only a short spin away any time you want it:D

Best of luck and welcome to Ireland:cool:

leebee77

thanks 'thebouldwhacker' for your nice message. I do hear what you are saying about commuter towns but i reeeally dont wanna live in the city. I have a friend who is at Crawford Art college at have been down to visit her a few times and as much as I love cork city (fav city in Ireland for sure regarding friendliness etc..) I simply cannot live in a city especially not with my wee boy. The course is 4yrs long and Im just not willing to bring my son up in hustle and bustle of city!! But this is a bit of a nighmare alright...is there any wee villages around, doesnt have to be west cork...maybe on train route?
thanks again for all your info!

TheDriver

train route would be mallow, midleton (i think), cobh but theres nicer towns around. Also train station is a long way from ucc

leebee77

riiiiiiiight...what about east cork???? Is ballycotton/shanagarry nice? Could a westie become an eastie though!!??

I have found a wee place on line that looks beautiful that i think is in north cork called Gougane Barra...but it is too far away from city me thinks but it has Treeeees and i love trees and mountains..perfect!! This is much harder than i thought but i do wanna narrow it down so as when down in cork in couple of weeks i can go on a wee investigation of certain areas.

deRanged

TheDriver wrote: »

train route

going east (much better than west ) little island, glounthaune, then either carrigtwohill and midleton, or down to Cobh. plenty of scenery, schools, trees and hills there.

Also train station is a long way from ucc

because I'm a computer person, I brought a GPS one day. 2.5 miles from train station to my office in UCC. You'd better like walking, it's about 30 mins depending on lots of things!
You could leave a bike in the station, or there's now a bus from the station right out to UCC and on to CIT.

Fud Duddy

Hi Leebee, I am presuming that you are looking for a two bedroomed house not far from a good primary school. Are you more interested in a town house or a country cottage? and what is your rental budget approx? Will you have to pick your son up from school daily? I guess the ideal is one thing and the reality is another, and I agree, kids have more freedoms growing up in the country.
Property on the coast is always more expensive to rent, but saying that and in the present house/financial/recession climate half the county should be up for rent at a more competitive rate very soon. Do you need to find somewhere right away or is it for next year?
I hope you don't mind all the questions but they might be relevant.

leebee77

Hey Fud Duddy. no worries about the questions at all!! I would definately prefer country cottage to town pad without a shadow of a doubt!! Im hoping to move next year but I reakon I need alot of planning before hand and if I could find the ideal place then i would move as soon as I could. Would also be good to get wee man settled in new school. Crikey Im confused and i might not even get accepted to UCC but I still want to make a move anyway. Def time to move on from Galway. Regarding rent then 800pcm would be the limit and to be honest i havent seem much on daft around that price range.
Oh and 'de-ranged' I love walking and i have a fine set of waterproofs for rainy day walks from station to UCC. Wishing hadnt looked at pictures of Gougane Barra now as its stuck in my mind. Maybe I should shelf the Uni idea and become a farmer wifie instead. Can already drive a tractor and have a chainsaw cert'..
Thanks everyone for info and advice. Tis a fab wee forum this.

deRanged

you'd get a flat in Midleton for that, with parking. you'd be 20 minutes by car from some lovely beaches, 5 from some nice woods, plus the train to Cork will be open by next year.

if you're in Galway you're already well used to walking in the rain!
There is parking in UCC, just not much, and if the 200 euro per space mentioned in the budget applies there'll probably be even less.

Fud Duddy

Well Leebee aren't you the well certified country girl. Gougane Barra is certainly a lovely spot on a summers day but it's a good spin to the city for sure. An earlier poster mentioned Glanworth, it is a lovely looking village, Kilworth not a bad little village either but to my mind Glanworth is a little sweeter in the traditional sense. Crosshaven and the surrounding bays have for years been habitat to many young people not wanting to live in the city and a short enough drive. Though it might be as expensive as kinsale, I don't know.
I do think though, that you should have no trouble finding a cosy little country cottage for E800 pm within a twenty five mile radius of Cork. If you are looking to rent with a rent allowance it can be more difficult to find a place. Maybe you should drive down from Galway some weekend and scout around a bit. There are a few places I would recommend you don't live but I'll not say here as I don't want to insult anyones home place and in fear of saying too much I think you should apply for UCC anyway, while education is still affordable, you can always turn it down or defer. The more options the better I'd say.

Sapsorrow

I'm in UCC and am moving to a little cottage in the country side on saturday yay! Gonna take half an hour to drive in but heres the good bit, from where we're moving you can take back roads the whole way in thus completely avoiding traffic and you arrive in on the edge of sundays well rd (where I've lived for 2 and a half yrs) where there's lots of free on st parking, know a few ppl who do this and they've never had problems getting a space and from here it's only a ten-fiften min walk max to UCC! The countryside around malow seems so lovely and you have the blackwater what more could you want!
What course are you hoping for? I'm in third yr of nutritional science now so maybe see ya on campus next yr!

leebee77

Hey Khrystyna!! Cheers for your message!! I am hoping to study Social Work...Strangely I have was wanting to study Nutrition but aint seen any courses...weeeird!
Thats great you have a wee cottage in the country!! Can I ask Khrystyna can you reccommend any particular area? I know i really have to get down and have a wee scoot aboot but im just trying to make a shortlist. My main issue is that it is somewhere where my son will be happy and be in a good school and that i can get to city in decent time!! Im getiing abit worried about the whole thing but im so grateful for everyones advice and info!! Good luck with your move.

smk135

Hey Leebee,

I'm moving to Cork too, nothing like your situation though and just wanted to say fair play to you - you've got all the right priorities for your son and you don't seem scared of hard work or long distances! there's some motivation!

Best of luck and I hope you find your ideal place and things run smoothly for you!

S

Sapsorrow

well from my experience of cork over the lst few yrs avoid the east side it's not so pretty as the other bits, towns seem more depressed there also in my opinion. For commuting you really want to avoid traffic if you can and take parking into consideration, thats why i reckon if you were based somewhere along the route i mentioned earilier it would be convenient for you going to college. North and north west cork looks lovely to be honest i don't know much about the buzz in the towns cos i always hung out in the southern villages previously but get a map our for yourself and have a look at the north of cork along the R619, avoid places on the N72 though cos you'll end up stcuk in loads of traffic in the opposite end of the city to UCC that way. Maybe try Bweeng, Drumahane (where we're moving) there's a primary school there and it's very prett countryside, Blarney would be expensive and it's more of a dormitory town at this point i'd imagine, the country side around macroom is esp nice but don't know anything about commuting frmo there i'd say if you were on the cork side of the village you'd avoid the traffic there thougha nd you could still come in the road to sundays well if you turned onto it when you enter the west side of ballincollig. Where we're moving seems very affordable for farm houses though, we saw a few nice places around mallow for between six and seven hundred a month and you'd get at least 3 bedrooms for that. Ours is six hundred a month, three bedrooms, rent allowance accepted, big garden/yard and a big field beside it for growing veg or whatever too!

Fuascailt

How about Innishannon or Crossbarry? Under half an hour drive to the city and pretty good bus services. Schools are good, and in my opinion, both have good "community spirit". Plus, you'd be near the coast, kinsale and clonakilty. Seriously, i'd check them out. Gougane Barra would be lovely, but realistically its too far to commute to UCC from. PM me if you want any more info.

Fud Duddy

Hey Leebee77, just wondering how you are getting on with your move to Cork?