Anyone with even a basic grasp of maritime history will know that signal stations were not just plonked on random clifftops. Locations were selected following careful consideration by naval engineers and insurers who underwrote shipping risks.
Such sites had to have a clear view of sea lanes and the stations themselves had to be robust enough to withstand the worst of Atlantic storms.
In essence, they were hardy outposts with some of the best views imaginable.
If you were to pick a location to build a coastal home and you knew your maritime onions, you’d jump at the chance to acquire a former signal station site. Patrick and Emma Coveney — no strangers to seafaring — knew they were onto a winner when they picked up just such a site at Weaver’s Point, minutes from pretty Crosshaven village.
A quick Google of the history of the Weaver’s Point outpost says a Walter James Cummins of Queenstown (Cobh) had a private signal station there, which became a key station reporting movements for Cork Harbour to Lloyd’s of London, after the insurer appointed Mr Cummins as their official agent in 1885. The station became known locally as Cummins Signal House.
At a later date, it evolved into a guest house known as The Tower, run by a Commander Edward Sweeney and his wife Alma, who bought it in 1962. It’s reported to have been sold in 2008, only to burn down later the same year.
The Coveneys’ holiday home replaced the original building in 2014. The Irish Examiner can confirm that it does indeed have the best views imaginable, of harbour mouth and open sea.
All of the sea-facing windows look straight across the bay to the lighthouse at the tip of Roches Point and to the scatter of secluded coves along the headland’s indented shoreline. White Bay’s sandy beach is part of the panorama, as is Carlisle Fort, once part of the British Empire’s coastal defence system, directly across from Camden Fort Meagher, which between them created a crossfire zone across the harbour entrance.
The Coveneys, with their passion for seafaring (and politics), were always going to be drawn to a home above the coastline, where maritime history is baked into the clay. As this branch of the family had settled in Dublin, they wanted a property close to their Cork roots: somewhere to spend holidays, reconnect with Cork cousins and indulge their shared love of sailing.
Having acquired a premium site at Weaver’s Point, two firms of architects were hired to create the ultimate beach house. The Douglas-based Hyde Partnership came up with the design while Patrick O’Hanlon of Hogan Associates oversaw the build, by local builder Dave O’Callaghan. As you would expect, light and views were paramount. All of the daytime accommodation is sea-facing. So is the main bedroom. Whether you’re prepping food at the kitchen counter or chilling in the sunken lounge or having dinner in the dining section of the cavernous, open-plan living space, the entire harbour unfolds before you: every fluttering sail, every little boat chugging by, every seagull wheeling overhead.
It’s a dynamic maritime panorama served up with daily variations, just beyond the tall, expansive windows of the home called Silver Apple — a name with both Yeatsian and yachting connotations.
If we go with the nod to Yeats, there’s a reference to silver apples in the final verse of The Song of Wandering Aengus, a poem about longing. The poet talks about a “fire” in his head, and, for sure, sitting among the purple haze of lavender that runs through the raised flower beds at Silver Apple, with a view more uplifting than anything a pill could offer, there’s little fear of a fire in the head.
If we go with the yachting reference, Silver Apple was designed by Ron Holland, who also designed Golden Apple of the Sun, a classic 44-foot International Offshore Rule (IOR) racing yacht, owned and campaigned by Patrick’s late father, politician Hugh Coveney, under the Crosshaven-based Royal Cork Yacht Club banner, during the late 1970s.
The decor at 313 sq m Silver Apple is very in tune with the family’s maritime links. Porthole-shaped lampshades hang above the dining table; framed maritime charts decorate some of the walls and soft coastal hues are everywhere in evidence. The look is very much what you might envisage for a home in The Hamptons, a popular summer retreat for wealthy New Yorkers at the eastern tip of Long Island.
Even if the house was as bare as the back of your hand, it wouldn’t matter a damn because of the beauty of the view and the magnificently landscaped gardens (0.54a), created and maintained by Ballygarvan-based The Pavilion Garden Centre. Giant sliding doors on the southside of the house, off the kitchen/sunken lounge, open onto a sandstone patio with built-in seating and a curved stone screen that shields it from the road above.
The garden drops down and curves around the east-facing front of the house, where there’s a terrace above the flower-beds and a sheltered deck — at the top of ornamental steps — between two protruding wings. A little gate in the side hedging brings you to a narrow roadway that leads down to the shoreline.
Inside, the house is dotted with striking architectural features, starting with the glass atrium in the entrance hall.
As soon as you cross the threshold, you can see Roches Point lighthouse. The wall in front of you is fully glazed and the glass rises into a vault. Natural light floods in. The view is magnificent.
The roof rises again in the main living space, above the drop-down lounge and the House of Coolmore kitchen, where giant exposed beams add visual drama. To the rear is a corridor of bedrooms. The main bedroom, in the opposite wing, has a walk-in wardrobe, large en suite and a separate reading room with superb ocean views and access to a private patio.
Also on this side of the home is a teen den with sliding access to a “winter garden” (sheltered deck), as well as a utility, services room and a double-height garage.
Savills selling agent Michael O’Donovan says Silver Apple has been “a fantastic holiday home, that has shown itself well able to stand up to the elements”. It comes to market as the Coveneys find they’re using it less, now that the kids are grown.
Mr O’Donovan says the Weaver’s Point home, on a cul-de-sac road, “is superb throughout”.
“I would definitely expect interest from buyers in the US, with Irish connections,” he says “as well as from Dublin, London and Cork.
“I could also see it being bought by someone looking for a fabulous fulltime family home in an amazing location.”
The guide price is €1.65m. The house performs well on the energy efficiency scale and has a B2 BER, helped by solar panels, a heat recovery system and zoned central heating.
: All the right signals at Silver Apple for buyers looking for a sublimely set, deluxe coastal home. Smooth sailing all the way.
Even if the house was as bare as the back of your hand, it wouldn’t matter a damn because of the beauty of view and the beautifully landscaped gardens.
