Advice please on good family areas in Cork?

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Fitzeireann

Guest
I wil be moving to Cork next year with my husband & 10 year son and I'm looking for advice on good family areas to live. We are willing to stay upto 35-40 minutes from the city centre. We have been over 4 times so far this year and had a good drive about but we still can't decide. The areas we are considering are Carrigaline, Glanmire, Ballincollig, Blackrock, Douglas, Rocehestown, Bishopstown & Blarney.We have only driven through some of these areas and we will be back in September to have another look. We also need to take into consideration schools etc. If anyone can suggest any other areas other than the ones meantioned it would be much appreciated.
 
Midleton is excellent if you are happy to go outside the city.
There are quite a few nice suburbs however.
Would write off Carraigaline from a schools perspective as they are so overfull families are sending kids to Ballygarvan etc.
 
It depends on what you are looking for and also your budget, for example Rochestown and Carrigaline would offer two completely different properties from a size perspective so depending on your budget is it more important to have more space or are local amenities more important etc. I would consider from a nice area, nice schools etc perspective, Rochestown, Douglas, Bishopstown, blackrock to all be within close proximity to the city and also have quite a few amenities close by (rochestown, douglas and blackrock have douglas village and city). From the towns further out I would like blarney and also good schools afaik. Carrigaline and Glanmire I don't know so well but I would second Iff12 that Midleton is a lovely spot and has lots of amenities and would be about 30-40 minutes from City.
 
All the areas you mention are considered nice family areas - can you narrow it down a bit by saying what areas you and husband expect to be working in? For example, Blarney and Carrigaline are quite far apart.
 
Fitzeireann said:
I wil be moving to Cork next year with my husband & 10 year son and I'm looking for advice on good family areas to live. We are willing to stay upto 35-40 minutes from the city centre. We have been over 4 times so far this year and had a good drive about but we still can't decide. The areas we are considering are Carrigaline, Glanmire, Ballincollig, Blackrock, Douglas, Rocehestown, Bishopstown & Blarney.We have only driven through some of these areas and we will be back in September to have another look. We also need to take into consideration schools etc. If anyone can suggest any other areas other than the ones meantioned it would be much appreciated.
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It depends on loads of factors e.g.

Where (location-wise) will you and/or your husband be working ?

Are you planning to buy or rent ? Houses are around the 400K mark + or -.

I'm in Wilton and we are served by 5 bus routes, close to the CUH/UCC/CIT, Dunnes and Tesco shopping centres etc which is great for us. There's plenty going on in Douglas as well but traffic can be crazy, especially Maryborough hill/Rochestown direction.
 
We will be looking to rent a 3 bedroom house at first to allow us to get settled and on our feet and then buy at a later date. Unfortunately we won't have jobs set up for us coming over, however we will have enough funds to keep us going for about 3 months until we can both find jobs. We're probably looking for an area that will have most amenities on our doorstep without having to drive too far away especially for schools, etc.
 
there are lots of houses for rent in Douglas area at the moment and i would recommend it as a great place for 10 year olds and a good location for folks working in town (bus service is good) and east or west of Kinsale road rab. Midleton recommendation i do not concur with - its still a case of "going up to Cork"!
 
I'd recommend Bishopstown - great schools, great clubs (GAA, Soccer etc) for the kids, everything on your doorstep, a short hop into town and west cork on your doorstep at the weekends.
 
I have a 10 year old boy and I live in Ballincollig. There are 3 primary schools - one is boys only (which my son attends and which I would highly recommend) and 2 are co-ed (one is a gaelscoil) and there are 2 excellent (co-ed) secondary schools. There are 2 soccer clubs - Ballincollig SC & Lakewood SC, a GAA club, tennis, basketball, gymnastics... to name but some. There is an indoor play area (www.supernova.ie) which includes an ice-staking rink upstairs and a "bounce around" area downstairs (as I like to call it), as well as outdoor 'all weather' pitches. There's a multi-plex cinema in the village. Basically, there's a lot to entertain kids of all ages.

I am a Corkonian but neither my husband or I are natives of Ballincollig. We've lived here 15 years now and love it.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention the playground and the skate park (which is within the beautiful Ballincollig Regional Park - be sure to check it out next time you're in the area).
 
lff12 said:
Midleton is excellent if you are happy to go outside the city.
There are quite a few nice suburbs however.
Would write off Carraigaline from a schools perspective as they are so overfull families are sending kids to Ballygarvan etc.
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don't know where you are getting your info re schools in Carrigaline but was at enrolement meeting for national school and no place shortages.
 
Ciadan said:
I have a 10 year old boy and I live in Ballincollig. There are 3 primary schools - one is boys only (which my son attends and which I would highly recommend) and 2 are co-ed (one is a gaelscoil) and there are 2 excellent (co-ed) secondary schools. There are 2 soccer clubs - Ballincollig SC & Lakewood SC, a GAA club, tennis, basketball, gymnastics... to name but some. There is an indoor play area (www.supernova.ie) which includes an ice-staking rink upstairs and a "bounce around" area downstairs (as I like to call it), as well as outdoor 'all weather' pitches. There's a multi-plex cinema in the village. Basically, there's a lot to entertain kids of all ages.

I am a Corkonian but neither my husband or I are natives of Ballincollig. We've lived here 15 years now and love it.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention the playground and the skate park (which is within the beautiful Ballincollig Regional Park - be sure to check it out next time you're in the area).
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Thanks for your info on Ballincollig Ciadan. This is an area we would really consider due to all the amenities for kids etc. My son is into football so the clubs would really interest him.:D

Would you happen to know how far in advance I would need to register him at a school?

We're really looking forward to coming over.....just wish it was this year! Our son is a wee bit apprehensive about it which is understandable but just hoping he will settle into the schools etc. You know what kids can be like! :)
 
I would go along with the opinion about the schools in Ballincollig, they have a great reputation, in fact my wife's niece is starting secondary in the Community school, in a couple of weeks. No harm to contact them now. [broken link removed]

The one thing I would say though is to be careful where you rent. There are some council areas in Ballincollig that have problems, such as the Inishmore estate. There are plenty good estates though.
 
Mumha said:
I would go along with the opinion about the schools in Ballincollig, they have a great reputation, in fact my wife's niece is starting secondary in the Community school, in a couple of weeks. No harm to contact them now. [broken link removed]

The one thing I would say though is to be careful where you rent. There are some council areas in Ballincollig that have problems, such as the Inishmore estate. There are plenty good estates though.
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Thanks Mumha. Whatever area we finally decide on we will definetley take this into consideration. I suppose all areas will have there good and not so good parts! It's exactly the same here in Glasgow. :)
 
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Glanmire is worth considering too, very convenient for access to the town centre and close to the tunnel for quick access to the southside. Lots of nice leafy walks. Also has excellent schools , - The secondary irish school is one of the best schools in the country.
 
raven said:
Glanmire is worth considering too, very convenient for access to the town centre and close to the tunnel for quick access to the southside. Lots of nice leafy walks. Also has excellent schools , - The secondary irish school is one of the best schools in the country.
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Thanks Raven. Are there any parts of Glanmire I should avoid? Do you happen to know if there is a website I can check out schools? Once we do decide on where we will settle I will need to get my son registered at a school....sooner rather than later!
 
Fitzeireann said:
Thanks Raven. Are there any parts of Glanmire I should avoid? Do you happen to know if there is a website I can check out schools? Once we do decide on where we will settle I will need to get my son registered at a school....sooner rather than later!
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I'd probably steer clear of the area immediately surrounding the shopping centre, - just because you get a lot of teenagers hanging around. Other than that, most of the Glanmire/Riverstown area is quite decent. The nicer areas are probably around Glyntown, Sallybrook and around Barnavara hill/Castlejane areas.

There's a huge range of clubs in the area with an almost over active Community association :)
[broken link removed]

Lots of info here on clubs, schools etc.
 
Fitzeireann said:
Thanks for your info on Ballincollig Ciadan. This is an area we would really consider due to all the amenities for kids etc. My son is into football so the clubs would really interest him.:D

Would you happen to know how far in advance I would need to register him at a school?
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I would advise contacting them at the start of this year, if it's for enrollment next year. Here are some numbers:-

Scoil Eoin (Boys only) 021-4871321
Scoil Barra (Mixed) 021-4873459
allincollig 4873459

And here's some general info about the town:- [broken link removed]
 
Ciadan said:
I would advise contacting them at the start of this year, if it's for enrollment next year. Here are some numbers:-

Scoil Eoin (Boys only) 021-4871321
Scoil Barra (Mixed) 021-4873459
allincollig 4873459

And here's some general info about the town:- [broken link removed]
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Thanks Ciadan. Once we decide where we want to stay I'll have another decision to make in terms of do I send my son to a mixed or all boys school. We used to have quite a few all boys/girls schools in Glasgow. I myself went to an all girls school but nowadays most of the schools are mixed.
 
Definitely no shortage of school places in Carrigaline. There is a new Educate Together School being built at the minute (important if you don't like the thoughts of your child being indoctrinated).

If you chose the Cork side of Carrigaline then 20-30 minute commute to Cork City depending on Cork City traffic.

Great soccer team (Carrigaline Utd)

Rent for 3-bed semi will be less than 1000 pm

To buy a 3 bed semi at minute would be about 300

A 4 bed detached would be around 400-450 depending on size location

Plenty of great walks around and only 10 minutes from neach for that one hot day we call summer

Regarding Midleton I would avoid, although it is similar in size to Carrigaline the commute is considerably longer 30-45 and is very dependent on traffic in the Jack Lynch tunnel which is horrific during rush hour.

Also the traffic in Douglas is chronic.

Carrigaline main street does have alot of traffic but there are several alternative routes to get to the other side

Bus service is terrible and IMO you will prob need two cars
 
In Cork City, Douglas is a very nice place to live, has very good schools but property is very expensive. Schools in Bishopstown are also very good but Bishopstown is expensive.

Of the satellite towns, Ballincollig has very good schools and property is more affordable. There are one or two estates which should be avoided. I would rate Ballincollig alot higher than Carrigaline.
 
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