Castlemartyr

john_doe.

Hi

I was looking at houses in Castlemartyr lately , the houses are before the village on the Middleton side.

Working in Carrigtwohill so the commute is not long.
From what I remember the traffic in Castlemartyr can be horrendous , crossing the bridge particularly at the set of traffic lights and before the village itself.

I would avoid the traffic lights in the village which is surely a good thing.

I was wondering though what's it like living in Castlemartyr in general? it seems to be a nice enough village.

Bacchus

john_doe. wrote: »

Hi

I was looking at houses in Castlemartyr lately , the houses are before the village on the Middleton side.

Working in Carrigtwohill so the commute is not long.
From what I remember the traffic in Castlemartyr can be horrendous , crossing the bridge particularly at the set of traffic lights and before the village itself.

I would avoid the traffic lights in the village which is surely a good thing.

I was wondering though what's it like living in Castlemartyr in general? it seems to be a nice enough village.

We moved there last year and while the traffic was horrendous in the evenings coming home it seems to be far better this year for whatever reason. It can be busy on a sunny weekend with people heading for the coast but that's mostly through the village... you'll be before the village.

As for the village itself, we settled in really well. The community is very friendly. The resort is a great place for a walk. The green grocers is fantastic and you have your pubs, butchers, florist, chemist, centra, post office, etc. so there's life in the village. Also, in general we love east Cork and you're in the middle of that here which is great.

john_doe.

Bacchus wrote: »

We moved there last year and while the traffic was horrendous in the evenings coming home it seems to be far better this year for whatever reason. It can be busy on a sunny weekend with people heading for the coast but that's mostly through the village... you'll be before the village.

As for the village itself, we settled in really well. The community is very friendly. The resort is a great place for a walk. The green grocers is fantastic and you have your pubs, butchers, florist, chemist, centra, post office, etc. so there's life in the village. Also, in general we love east Cork and you're in the middle of that here which is great.

Thanks for the detailed reply, I remember traffic being awful on way to Waterford before when I worked down that way.

One thing I was wondering was what the internet speed is like there.

I have virgin media broadabnd at over 100Mb at moment in city so I would be expecting a Downgrade but I was wondering what the speeds are like there ?

There seems to be east cork broadband and line of sight. Dont see what the eircom service is like.

pro_gnostic_8

Hi,
I'm getting ~5.0 Mbps Up / 0.3 Down using Eircom/Vodaphone landline broadband .............. and that's at best; on a Sunday evening it's more like the dial-up speeds of yesteryear. (I'm right beside an exchange box too, btw.)
Friends of mine are getting ~11.0 Mbps with East Cork wireless broadband, but you do need line-of-sight access to the relay.

Re living in Castlemartyr, I'm undecided if I would recommend it. There are two pubs neither of which may be to the taste of many people; there is no restaurant, a very expensive Centra, the only one safe/pleasant walk route is through the hotel grounds. The main street s distinctly ugly with many dilapidated/boarded-up buildings, and this main street is always choked with heavy vehicular traffic as it is a chicane on the Cork/Waterford main road. There is no doctor's surgery, no dentist, no taxi-base, no petrol station. There IS a butcher's, a florist, a greengrocer's, a chemist, a post-0ffice, a small coffee shop, and hairdressers. That's about it.

john_doe.

pro_gnostic_8 wrote: »

Hi,
I'm getting ~5.0 Mbps Up / 0.3 Down using Eircom/Vodaphone landline broadband .............. and that's at best; on a Sunday evening it's more like the dial-up speeds of yesteryear. (I'm right beside an exchange box too, btw.)
Friends of mine are getting ~11.0 Mbps with East Cork wireless broadband, but you do need line-of-sight access to the relay.

Re living in Castlemartyr, I'm undecided if I would recommend it. There are two pubs neither of which may be to the taste of many people; there is no restaurant, a very expensive Centra, the only one safe/pleasant walk route is through the hotel grounds. The main street s distinctly ugly with many dilapidated/boarded-up buildings, and this main street is always choked with heavy vehicular traffic as it is a chicane on the Cork/Waterford main road. There is no doctor's surgery, no dentist, no taxi-base, no petrol station. There IS a butcher's, a florist, a greengrocer's, a chemist, a post-0ffice, a small coffee shop, and hairdressers. That's about it.

Ok, that paints a pretty bleak picture to be honest , doesn't sound to appealing , can't imagine the winter months !

Bacchus

john_doe. wrote: »

There seems to be east cork broadband and line of sight. Dont see what the eircom service is like.

Have Eir, it's grand. Netflix + YouTube on the go no problem.

pro_gnostic_8 wrote: »

Re living in Castlemartyr, I'm undecided if I would recommend it. There are two pubs neither of which may be to the taste of many people; there is no restaurant, a very expensive Centra, the only one safe/pleasant walk route is through the hotel grounds. The main street s distinctly ugly with many dilapidated/boarded-up buildings, and this main street is always choked with heavy vehicular traffic as it is a chicane on the Cork/Waterford main road. There is no doctor's surgery, no dentist, no taxi-base, no petrol station. There IS a butcher's, a florist, a greengrocer's, a chemist, a post-0ffice, a small coffee shop, and hairdressers. That's about it.

I think your expectations of a village might be a bit high... a dentist?! Remember, Middleton is literally 10 minutes drive away and there's far more facilities there. We're talking about a country village here. There is a medical center in the village btw... no idea of opening hours or anything that though.

There's a petrol station about 3 minutes away in LadysBridge and several along the route between the city and Castlemartyr.

There's two typical village pubs here. If you want city pubs and variety, don't live in a village. I'm not a huge pub goer but The Hunted Hog is quite cosy and has a decent selection on tap. Would love if they could step up the food side of things a notch though. Food is good but not great.

No restaurant? There's two in the resort. There's plenty of lunch options too...two cafes (neither I'd describe as "small") in village, Carewswood is 5 minutes away, the golf club do a nice lunch too... then in a 10 minutes driving radius you have Ballyseedy, Stephen Pearce, Ballymaloe, Barnabrow, Garryvoe, not to mention the choice in Midleton for dinner and lunches (Farmgate, Sage, Green Room, La Trattoria, Montys). I admit though, I'd love to see a restuarant in the heart of the village itself.

There's a Centra... same price as any Centra.

A lot of villages would kill to have that resort for a walk btw. There's plenty of areas within 10-15 minutes drive to go for walks too (for a bit of variety).

The one area I agree with you on is the boarded up buildings. I would love to see them brought back to life but by and large the village is kept well.

Traffic is a minor annoyance but it depends really where you are living exactly and how much your travel conflicts with peak traffic times. For me, it's at most a minor annoyance at times.

Phew, only a year here and I'm already defensive of the village I call home Look, it's not a perfect village and yes some buildings need to renovated but there's a lot going for it and the poster above has painted an overly negative picture of life here.

deRanged

if it was me I'd look at Midleton, but that's obviously going to affect price&availability.

The traffic through the middle of the village would be a deal breaker for me, but I'm really anti traffic. ymmv.

john_doe.

Bacchus wrote: »

Have Eir, it's grand. Netflix + YouTube on the go no problem.



I think your expectations of a village might be a bit high... a dentist?! Remember, Middleton is literally 10 minutes drive away and there's far more facilities there. We're talking about a country village here. There is a medical center in the village btw... no idea of opening hours or anything that though.

There's a petrol station about 3 minutes away in LadysBridge and several along the route between the city and Castlemartyr.

There's two typical village pubs here. If you want city pubs and variety, don't live in a village. I'm not a huge pub goer but The Hunted Hog is quite cosy and has a decent selection on tap. Would love if they could step up the food side of things a notch though. Food is good but not great.

No restaurant? There's two in the resort. There's plenty of lunch options too...two cafes (neither I'd describe as "small") in village, Carewswood is 5 minutes away, the golf club do a nice lunch too... then in a 10 minutes driving radius you have Ballyseedy, Stephen Pearce, Ballymaloe, Barnabrow, Garryvoe, not to mention the choice in Midleton for dinner and lunches (Farmgate, Sage, Green Room, La Trattoria, Montys). I admit though, I'd love to see a restuarant in the heart of the village itself.

There's a Centra... same price as any Centra.

A lot of villages would kill to have that resort for a walk btw. There's plenty of areas within 10-15 minutes drive to go for walks too (for a bit of variety).

The one area I agree with you on is the boarded up buildings. I would love to see them brought back to life but by and large the village is kept well.

Traffic is a minor annoyance but it depends really where you are living exactly and how much your travel conflicts with peak traffic times. For me, it's at most a minor annoyance at times.

Phew, only a year here and I'm already defensive of the village I call home Look, it's not a perfect village and yes some buildings need to renovated but there's a lot going for it and the poster above has painted an overly negative picture of life here.

Thanks ya it looks like a typical village to me . A village is a village after all not a town.
The boarded up buildings do look bad but there's worse things to be looking at.

The internet speed wud prob drive me more mad than traffic

Bacchus

john_doe. wrote: »

The internet speed wud prob drive me more mad than traffic

Did a speed test there... 27Mbps down 5.5Mbps up.

john_doe.

Bacchus wrote: »

Did a speed test there... 27Mbps down 5.5Mbps up.

Jesus that's not that bad , can't compete with Virgin Fibre but that's only for city living.
Thanks very much you've been very helpful.

minterno

Eir fibre is 28mb down and 8mb up in my house. Its rock solid also. Above the chemist dr hutch from midleton holds 2 morning surgerys pw. Im living on the east side of the village and find the traffic moves quickly enough. Also the two mile inn on the road from midleton does good food

john_doe.

minterno wrote: »

Eir fibre is 28mb down and 8mb up in my house. Its rock solid also. Above the chemist dr hutch from midleton holds 2 morning surgerys pw. Im living on the east side of the village and find the traffic moves quickly enough. Also the two mile inn on the road from midleton does good food

Thanks I think ye have sold me on Castlemartyr, it's strange I nearly moved there years before and ended up not buying a house at the time.
Maybe it's meant to be haha