Cork - Mount Oval and Broadale

hikingjohn31

Hi guys,
I'm looking at buying a house in the Douglas/Rochestown area in Cork and currently houses in Mount Oval and Broadale have caught my eye.

I have heard from a colleague whose sister lives in the area about some issues with youths hanging out a lot in the estates and also some issues with drinking in an area between the two estates. Anyone have any more info?

hoodwinked

Mount oval is a brand new estate, it's also huge so you have a large mix of families with young children, families with teenagers, working professionals, social housing and elderly couples living up there, if you give an estimated area (even those can be huge, take ArdKeale for example, you can say things like great if you are a working professional, but some of those houses have a green area and then the main mount oval road so wouldn't be great if you have children)

mount oval also has a village with a shop, bar, creche...etc


broadale is a more settled estate, it's been there awhile, they have broadale residents association page on facebook if that helps you get to know the area (i am not sure if i am allowed link it to here)


there are teenagers/children living there, but it does have a shop and chemist and other businesses to the front of the estate, that shop used to (years ago) attract undesirables,which stopped when the shop closed down, one of the promises i think that was made to the residents when the new shop opened is that it wouldn't be allowed happen again and so far its only customers i see in the area of the shop so it seems to be working.

i hope that helps.

hikingjohn31

Thanks Hoodwinked for the detailed reply - both areas seem nice and a mix of families with young children and teenagers would be exactly what we are looking for. I would be a little concerned about crowds hanging around by the shops in both areas, but if the new shop owners in Broadale seem to have things under control then that's a good thing and I guess that the businesses in the Mount Oval shop area wouldn't let things get out of control either.

On a walk through the Ard Keale area of Mount Oval earlier in the week I noticed some teenagers heading through a hole in the fence at the top of the slip road from the Carrigaline road on the right hand side into a wooded area. Is there access from here into Broadale? I didn't have a look myself as I was with the kids, but on Google Maps it looked like The Heights area of Broadale is on the other side of the wooded area?

Dob74

hikingjohn31 wrote: »

Hi guys,
I'm looking at buying a house in the Douglas/Rochestown area in Cork and currently houses in Mount Oval and Broadale have caught my eye.

I have heard from a colleague whose sister lives in the area about some issues with youths hanging out a lot in the estates and also some issues with drinking in an area between the two estates. Anyone have any more info?

Just teens bushin(drinking cans). Not that big of deal they don't cause trouble.
But like any large group of teens can be annoying.

hoodwinked

hikingjohn31 wrote: »

Thanks Hoodwinked for the detailed reply - both areas seem nice and a mix of families with young children and teenagers would be exactly what we are looking for. I would be a little concerned about crowds hanging around by the shops in both areas, but if the new shop owners in Broadale seem to have things under control then that's a good thing and I guess that the businesses in the Mount Oval shop area wouldn't let things get out of control either.

On a walk through the Ard Keale area of Mount Oval earlier in the week I noticed some teenagers heading through a hole in the fence at the top of the slip road from the Carrigaline road on the right hand side into a wooded area. Is there access from here into Broadale? I didn't have a look myself as I was with the kids, but on Google Maps it looked like The Heights area of Broadale is on the other side of the wooded area?

there probably is access to broadale but considering the local radio here was talking a few weeks ago of cars being hit by rocks on the N28, i reckon they were heading to the wooded area down by the road rather than broadale

i don't know if people hang out at the mount oval shop i pass it on occasion, but i pass the broadale one regularly and i have never seen anybody hanging out there, maybe someone else who passes it may have seen different,

just a note this area has a reputation of being 'posh' but i can tell you there is a good mix of people and it is in no way "posh" but it isn't the worst of areas either, there are of course pockets of troublemakers like anywhere else, but for the most part it is a good and safe area, i have been living here 5 years and the incident above was the first time since we've been here i've heard of anything like that happening,

hikingjohn31

Teens bush drinking and throwing rocks at cars doesn't exactly sound ideal - hopefully the rock throwing was a once off - kids can do daft things sometimes. Would there be much of a bush drinking element going on?

I like both areas so far - Mount Oval being newer probably catches the eye more and Broadale seems to be a nice mature estate. Both estates also seem family friendly and like you say hoodwinked seem to have a nice mix of folk.

Regarding schools, what are the most popular primary and secondary schools in the area?

Deer

I am living in mount oval.

Other than the stone throwing incident have never heard or seen trouble up here. Have been living here for years. There are the odd group of teens that hang out around the shop but have never had a spot of bother from them. If they are down in the woods drinking they are really not causing trouble that I know of and to be honest teens drinking in wooded areas is pretty widespread. Only the other day I spotted a plot for some teenagers to go drinking at the woods down by Douglas park on my daughters Facebook feed.

School wise you have the one in Foxwood (can't remember the name), the new educate together and then into Douglas for Eglantine, St Columbas, St Anthony's and St Luke's.

I have heard mixed reports re Foxwood and can personally recommend both Eglantine and the Educate Toghether. Secondary schools - Rochestown College for boys and back into Douglas again for Douglas Comm, Regina Mundi and Christ the King.

hoodwinked

hikingjohn31 wrote: »

Teens bush drinking and throwing rocks at cars doesn't exactly sound ideal - hopefully the rock throwing was a once off - kids can do daft things sometimes. Would there be much of a bush drinking element going on?

I like both areas so far - Mount Oval being newer probably catches the eye more and Broadale seems to be a nice mature estate. Both estates also seem family friendly and like you say hoodwinked seem to have a nice mix of folk.

Regarding schools, what are the most popular primary and secondary schools in the area?

i think it was, it hasn't happened since anyway, bush drinking is everywhere in cork, it really does seem like it anyway, even in the most affluent area's. the only place i don't hear of it being common place would be in the countryside oddly enough, it seems to be an all over the city/suburb thing.

school wise the most popular would probably be the Gaelscoil in Douglas and Eglantine primary school in douglas for primary, for secondary you are also on a bus service route (216) so that also opens up all the schools in cork city, so the most popular would be pres/christians for boys, and for girls i really don't know, Ashton is also popular for both genders,

edit: i think most of the local schools are mentioned above,

mik_da_man

Hasn't been mentioned but the traffic out of mount oval itwoards douglas/city n the mornings when schools on can be quite bad.

Personally made me avoid the area.

dory

Broadale has very quick access to the Link. But might not be useful if you have to go into Douglas anyway for schools.

razorblunt

Lived in Broadale for years, never had hassle, the area between Mount Oval and Broadale is not somehwere you'd walk anyway and I mean that in the sense of it's physically hard to do so, only ever walked my dog through there (it's like a valley) but stopped due to broken glass down.

The green areas in both are fine and in the summer can be full of kids.

The groups are fine too, they're just congregators more than anything.

vinnie_cork

I live in Mount Oval, I start work at 9am in Ballincollig and have to say I usually leave about 8:40 and get to work before 9am. during the school term maybe 8:25, although have noticed if you wait that little longer you miss the school traffic. The 2 exits out of Mount Oval help, people use the lower one for heading down clarkes hill to get on to Rochestown road abnd the upper exit to head Garryduff to Carrigaline or on to like via Marybourgh Hill, I find down onto Rochestown Rd the quicker option to access the link road. regarding entering the estate the slip road is great.

hoodwinked

mik_da_man wrote: »

Hasn't been mentioned but the traffic out of mount oval itwoards douglas/city n the mornings when schools on can be quite bad.

Personally made me avoid the area.

i don't know about the traffic thing,

during term time (leaving via maryborough hill slip road) i make it to dennehy's cross in 20-25 minutes,

my husband also leaves around 7.30-8am and only for queuing for maybe 5 minutes maximum to get down the slip road the rest of his journey is travel time.

hikingjohn31

Thanks for the great general info on the area guys and the advice on schools and traffic - all sounds good! One question on the Rochestown college - is there any bus option to get there from Mount Oval / Broadale?

I just checked out the Broadale Resident's Asscoiation webpage and they have some very recent posts about break-ins in the estate and some of the surrounding estates,,,,, hopefully ye guys haven't been affected......