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Need your help, moved back from Australia, live in Kinsale or Beaumont in Cork City?

HillFarmer

Hi All,

Moving back to Cork, partner has already arrived.

We have one primary aged girl and have been looking at moving to Kinsale or Beaumont / Ballintemple area of Cork.

My partner is pro Kinsale, I don't know much about that area and am conscious of the commute.
My partner will work in the city center, I will more than likely be based in Balllincollig / remote working for a few days a week.

I'd really like to get some opinions as its a major life changing decision and I'd appreciate other peoples opinions.

We have looked at primary and secondary schools in Kinsale and they look great, as does Ballintemple, Blackrock area.

I'm not a huge city living fan however long term I see that area of Cork city developing into a even nicer area to live.
I think living in Kinsale would give a great sense of community, nice cafe's and restaurants but the commute would worry me.

Would love to hear some pro's and cons.

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SteelyDanJalapeno

We bought in Kinsale recently, it's a beautiful town, can be busy in summer.

I commute to ballincollig every other day, it's about 30 mins via the N71, it's a grand spin really, the City is gone downhill imo

HillFarmer

Thanks Dan, that's great info.

I had noticed more media reports of issues in Cork city the last number of years.
Are you from Kinsale or did you just move there?

I wouldn't know anyone there but would be great to get your thoughts on pros and cons you see living in Kinsale.

SteelyDanJalapeno

I'm not from Cork but lived in the City for years, same as anywhere I suppose, good areas and bad, and BlackRock is fine.
It certainly more dangerous walking around town and the surroundings the last year or 2 myself and my partner have been attacked previously.
I know you can avoid these things don't walk alone, cross the road, avoid certain alleys or lanes etc, but I'd rather not have to deal with it at all.

Kinsale I can't really say as I havent been here all that long, it is very quiet right now but we are in a lockdown. Can be guaranteed it will be very busy on a sunny weekend thou, and it's got some great restaurants and pubs, but be prepared for a little slower pace of life

[Deleted User]

Regarding the city, are you talking about the suburbs or city centre, i assume the suburbs as you mentioned Beaumont.

Can't speak for the city centre but i live in Douglas and run regular to turners cross, down summerhill south and back up Douglas road and cut off at ballinlough road, sometimes i go Boreenmanna road. i never have issues and people are out walking regular.

It all depends where you work as well. Beaumont is a very expensive area, but it is close to Douglas, the marina, town etc., plus you have the lovely Sunday morning walk along the Blackrock line and finish with a coffee at the market. Plus if you have kids, they are building the new park by Pairc Ui Chaoimh

Also if they develop the marina and surrounds it will become nearly a sub city itself.

Owen

Beaumont is a great place. I grew up there, there's a school, 2 well served bus routes, easy access to walk to Blackrock village/the marina, easy access to Mahon/Douglas/City and the Tunnel for heading up the motorway. You'll find it hard to beat the location TBH.

cantalach

You can’t go wrong with the 5 contiguous Bs: Blackrock, Ballintemple, Beaumont, Ballinlough, Boreenmanna. Very good quality of life compared to the outer suburbs because everything is much closer to hand. None of the widely publicised issues seen elsewhere have been seen here (yet?).

I like Kinsale but couldn’t stand living there due to the huge number of visitors during the summer months. Also, whether it is Kinsale or another satellite town like Midleton, do try to think ten years ahead to when your kids are teenagers. Friends and work colleagues living outside the city seem to spend their lives in the car, driving the kids here and there. My kids just get the bus.

[Deleted User]

cantalach wrote: »

You can’t go wrong with the 5 contiguous Bs: Blackrock, Ballintemple, Beaumont, Ballinlough, Boreenmanna. Very good quality of life compared to the outer suburbs because everything is much closer to hand. None of the widely publicised issues seen elsewhere have been seen here (yet?).

I like Kinsale but couldn’t stand living there due to the huge number of visitors during the summer months. Also, whether it is Kinsale or another satellite town like Midleton, do try to think ten years ahead to when your kids are teenagers. Friends and work colleagues living outside the city seem to spend their lives in the car, driving the kids here and there. My kids just get the bus.

5 contiguous Bs, ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚, isn't Beaumont part of ballintemple.

Be careful of blackrock as half of mahon is now blackrock if you go by estate agents

cantalach

[Deleted User] wrote: »

5 contiguous Bs, ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚, isn't Beaumont part of ballintemple.

Oh maybe. No idea where the boundaries lie to be honest. Not sure anyone does. It was one of the most confusing things for us when we moved to Cork from a country where suburb boundaries are shown very clearly on the map. I spent a year thinking I lived in Douglas until one morning I got into a taxi outside my house and the driver said into his radio, “just picked up in Ballinlough.” I asked him, “is this Ballinlough?” and he looked at me like I was mental.

Be careful of blackrock as half of mahon is now blackrock if you go by estate agents

The interesting thing there is that Blackrock doesn’t exist in the traditional place names hierarchy. There is a townland of Ballintemple and a townland of Mahon, both in the civil parish of St Finbar’s in the Barony of Cork. But there’s actually no townland of Blackrock. My wife’s into local history, and according to a book she read about the Mahon Peninsula, Blackrock is mostly within the townland of Mahon. But the locals can at least latch on to the modern day electoral district of Blackrock

65535

Nothing wrong with Mahon, have lived here most of my life with little to no issues.
Like any major conurbation you will have problems and it depends on how you react.

One issue not normally seen is the fact that Mahon/Blackrock etc. is on a peninsula and during 'ball game times' it can get cut off.
People here depend a lot now on the tunnel whereas before it was 4 miles to the city and back down the other side to get to Midleton for example.

Beaumont has great primary schools.

Kinsale is a town well outside the city so you will spend a lot of time driving.

pwurple

Kinsale is gorgeous for a visit, but it's a life of driving if you live there and the place is jammed with tourists half the year. Lovely spot is the reason why.

Don't know where you lie on the eco-conscious side of things, but planning long commutes isn't green.

Blackrock is missing parks, but it has coast, walks, access to sports clubs on your doorstep. (gaa, soccer, rugby, tennis, rowing etc). Some nice pubs, good community spirit.

I have to say, a lot of people would envy the chance to have that choice. Two very nice parts of Cork.

PreCocious

cantalach wrote: »

The interesting thing there is that Blackrock doesn’t exist in the traditional place names hierarchy. There is a townland of Ballintemple and a townland of Mahon, both in the civil parish of St Finbar’s in the Barony of Cork. But there’s actually no townland of Blackrock. My wife’s into local history, and according to a book she read about the Mahon Peninsula, Blackrock is mostly within the townland of Mahon. But the locals can at least latch on to the modern day electoral district of Blackrock

There isn't a Blackrock ED - Blackrock falls mainly in to Mahon A.

rebs23

Beaumount/Blackrock/Ballintemple are simply great places to live, close to the City Centre, close to the Marina and all the walks, views, etc. You won't have to spend your life in a car. The schools are excellent, good cafes/deli's, a lot of quirky characters, Blackrock Market on a Sunday, you can cycle off road in all directions, generally if you have to drive you're not too far from anywhere, bus routes, future parks and light rail hopefully over the next 20 years. Only problem is trying to find somewhere as it's probably the priciest part of Cork per sq. ft and the estate agents have lists of buyers trying to locate in the area.

cantalach

PreCocious wrote: »

There isn't a Blackrock ED - Blackrock falls mainly in to Mahon A.

Oh my bad. But in my defence, there seems to be a weird glitch in logainm.ie (the official Placenames Database of Ireland). When you search for Blackrock, the one in Cork City is shown in the list with “electoral district” printed after it:

https://www.logainm.ie/en/s?txt=Blackrock&con=100010

But when you tap on that list entry to view all the details, there is no longer any mention of it being an electoral district:

https://www.logainm.ie/ga/129454

The inescapable conclusion is that Blackrock doesn’t exist

bingo9999

In weighing up Kinsale consider how likely it is you will have an ability to work from home too - we considered Kinsale about 2 years ago and didnt go for it for the reasons noted that a long drive every morning did not sound great (road is narrow and feels quite fast - not saying its dangerous as such, but a mistake by someone could be very bad). If we were making that call now it might have far more appeal if we were doing that once or twice a week and living in Kinsale day to day. Gorgeous town, it was always and has improved a lot in the few years where I was gone from Cork - restaurant heaven in so many ways.

Also just to offer a counter opinion on Cork city itself, of course there are negative stories and they trouble me as much as anyone, has felt like Cork city was in a big decline since recession. With that said I find myself more and more heading in for walks, grabbing a coffee (or pint of Murphys) and really enjoying the character and charm of all streets on Morrisons Island. The buzz on Oliver Plunkett street lately with Christmas lights and takeaway is really something. I notice a slow but steady improvement lately, some driven by outdoor seating and a sense of families and respectable adults coming back to the city as opposed to groups of scuts and homeless people. Not saying its perfect and one bad experience might change my whole outlook, but wanted to put my experience out there.
Rather than set out specifics this thread keeps a good eye on developments in the centre https://www.skyscrapercity.com/forums/cork-metro-area.4450/

Good luck! You'll be glad to be back in Cork I think, we all come full circle fighting to get away and then appreciating it on return.

PreCocious

cantalach wrote: »

The inescapable conclusion is that Blackrock doesn’t exist

Just like Bielefeld *

* might need to be googled.

[Deleted User]

PreCocious wrote: »

There isn't a Blackrock ED - Blackrock falls mainly in to Mahon A.

I thought it was the other way around that Mahon was part of Blackrock. Most of Mahon that we know of is Ballinure anyway.

cantalach

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I thought it was the other way around that Mahon was part of Blackrock. Most of Mahon that we know of is Ballinure anyway.

The logainm records for a Ballinure in Cork City show references from 1841 to “Southmahon and Ballynure [sic]” and “Ballinure and Southmaghen [sic]”. So perhaps Ballinure was the southern part of the Mahon Peninsula? That would be consistent with the location of the modern day streets in Mahon with that name.

[Deleted User]

SteelyDanJalapeno wrote: »

........... the City is gone downhill imo

Yes, likely true as heroin problem isn't getting any better but it's not really an issue for folk living in Beaumont

HillFarmer

bingo9999 wrote: »

In weighing up Kinsale consider how likely it is you will have an ability to work from home too - we considered Kinsale about 2 years ago and didnt go for it for the reasons noted that a long drive every morning did not sound great (road is narrow and feels quite fast - not saying its dangerous as such, but a mistake by someone could be very bad). If we were making that call now it might have far more appeal if we were doing that once or twice a week and living in Kinsale day to day. Gorgeous town, it was always and has improved a lot in the few years where I was gone from Cork - restaurant heaven in so many ways.

Also just to offer a counter opinion on Cork city itself, of course there are negative stories and they trouble me as much as anyone, has felt like Cork city was in a big decline since recession. With that said I find myself more and more heading in for walks, grabbing a coffee (or pint of Murphys) and really enjoying the character and charm of all streets on Morrisons Island. The buzz on Oliver Plunkett street lately with Christmas lights and takeaway is really something. I notice a slow but steady improvement lately, some driven by outdoor seating and a sense of families and respectable adults coming back to the city as opposed to groups of scuts and homeless people. Not saying its perfect and one bad experience might change my whole outlook, but wanted to put my experience out there.
Rather than set out specifics this thread keeps a good eye on developments in the centre https://www.skyscrapercity.com/forums/cork-metro-area.4450/

Good luck! You'll be glad to be back in Cork I think, we all come full circle fighting to get away and then appreciating it on return.

Thanks for your input and views!!

thejuggler

Can't comment directly on Kinsale or the '5 contiguous Bs' but as you mention Ballincollig as your potential place of work why not consider it as a place to live? City bus service to city centre every 20 mins for your other half, good sense of community and its developed a lot infrastructure wise in the last 10-15 years.

.red.

It's strange that you've narrowed it down to Beaumont and Kinsale. Both are so completely different it's like comparing apples and oranges.

If your working in Ballincollig, why not go there, or somewhere close by? You have loads of options within a 15 minute drive, either suburban or rural.

bingo9999

thejuggler wrote: »

Can't comment directly on Kinsale or the '5 contiguous Bs' but as you mention Ballincollig as your potential place of work why not consider it as a place to live? City bus service to city centre every 20 mins for your other half, good sense of community and its developed a lot infrastructure wise in the last 10-15 years.

I never liked Ballincollig when I was younger but the street redvelopment has given it a better sense of community that has spurred more businesses and better care of the place. I live in Kerry Pike nearby and its a nice town centre out of the city

cantalach

.red. wrote: »

It's strange that you've narrowed it down to Beaumont and Kinsale. Both are so completely different it's like comparing apples and oranges.

OP prefers apples but her other half prefers oranges.

cantalach

One more thought from me is that giving too much weight to where you work can be a bit short-sighted. Unless you both have the luxury of a job that is unlikely to move, you or your partner could find yourself working in a completely different location five years from now.

- Employers move offices, e.g. my employer has been in three different locations in 15 years.
- Employers move staff to satellite/overflow offices, e.g. Apple, Dell, UCC, etc.
- Employers change remote working policies, e.g. my wife’s employer (though Covid forced a reversal of that).
- Employers make people redundant or close up shop altogether.
- Employees get bored or feel undervalued and decide to change jobs.

If you weight too heavily towards your commute and your commute changes, you can find yourself living somewhere that, when scored on its intrinsic merits, that doesn’t come out so favourably. And it’s not so easy to move again when you’ve become attached to your home & community, and when a teenage child has become embedded in a network of friends.

Thoie

Another vote for Beaumont-ish here, though Kinsale is lovely too. If gardens are important to you, you're more likely to get a bigger garden in the Kinsale area (though if money is no object, there are some big old houses with big gardens in the "B's" area).

One thing to watch out for in the Beaumont/Ballintemple/Blackrock area is that while all the maps will tell you the area is fully fibre enabled, there are certain individual roads that are plagued with old copper wiring, and no great move from eir to upgrade them. Some areas near the quarry can be poor for mobile signal too, so watch out for that while house hunting if working from home is important to you. Most of the area has at least FTTC, and a lot has FTTH now, and Virgin are upgrading their network too at the moment.

HillFarmer

Thoie wrote: »

Another vote for Beaumont-ish here, though Kinsale is lovely too. If gardens are important to you, you're more likely to get a bigger garden in the Kinsale area (though if money is no object, there are some big old houses with big gardens in the "B's" area).

One thing to watch out for in the Beaumont/Ballintemple/Blackrock area is that while all the maps will tell you the area is fully fibre enabled, there are certain individual roads that are plagued with old copper wiring, and no great move from eir to upgrade them. Some areas near the quarry can be poor for mobile signal too, so watch out for that while house hunting if working from home is important to you. Most of the area has at least FTTC, and a lot has FTTH now, and Virgin are upgrading their network too at the moment.

Thanks, great point also, I have seen on google maps some of those houses do have huge gardens.

Working from home, fast broadband speeds are a must.

In Kinsale, I haven't seen an awful lot of houses for sale tbh, rental as well seems pretty thin on the ground. Broadband though seems to be pretty good.

Long term, I think I prefer Beaumont area, I'll let everyone know what we decide, we'll need to make a decision in the next few weeks.

HillFarmer

Thanks for everyone's advice, we have settled on Beaumont.
Nightmare to get accommodation close though.

Hopefully we will be able to buy in six months, slim pickings at the minute on houses for sale in the area.

We do like living in the area though!
IF anyone lives in the immediate area would appreciate views on particular street.

Beaumont drive houses look to have very large gardens, but the houses would need considerably investment to bring up the BER

blindsider

Traditionally, the property market used to take off at Easter. That may have changed a bit but worth noting.

Re upgrading a house, there are several grants available from SEAI, and also some good threads here on boards e.g. https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057550775