Northcliff was a post office and a telegraph office in the 1800s and played a pivotal role in transatlantic communications. Aerial Pictures: Richard Coleman

Lighthouse Terrace in Rochespoint is up there with the best of them when it comes to iconic rows of homes. What it lacks in swagger and whimsy (see Dalkey’s Sorrento Terrace and Cobh’s House of Cards) it makes up for in spectacular views. It’s a modest row of homes with the inordinate good fortune of a million-dollar setting.

To cap it all off, you don’t need to be a millionaire to own one. In fact, a first-time buyer has as good a shot at becoming a homeowner on Lighthouse Terrace as (almost) anyone else.

The good news is there’s one up for grabs right now, and the guide price of €275,000 should definitely hold the door open for anyone looking for a starter home.

This particular one, called Northcliffe, has an interesting history. It was a post office and a telegraph office in the 1800s and played a pivotal role in transatlantic communications, according to selling agent Michael Russell of Russell Estate Agents. An historian who lives in the row told him so. It remained a post office until the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922. Sometime later, it became a residential dwelling.

The house featured here is No 4A, the ‘A’ containing a clue as to its original state. The “A” part was hived off after two brothers bought No 4 in the early 1990s and divided it into two separate properties, Dún Róisín being the terraced house with bay windows and Northcliffe being the end of terrace. So even though Northcliffe looks like part of a continuous row of about a dozen homes, it does not in fact adjoin a property on one side, and enjoys the benefit of pedestrian access to the rear yard, which has a storage shed, boiler and oil tank.

Gardens in these homes are rightfully on the seaward side. In fact, they’re as close to the sea as is physically possible without sliding right in, across the road from the terrace, with uninterrupted views across the mouth of Cork Harbour.

Residents of LightHouse Terrace have taken full advantage of their position and their gardens make the most of the exceptional setting. Many are tiered, with more than one deck/patio, while some have access points to the rocky beach below. What the next-door neighbour/brother of the vendor has done is a good example of what can be achieved, with a couple of separate terraces from which to enjoy the setting sun, as the terrace faces West, towards Cobh.

“In fact, you can see Cobh Cathedral from the living room,” Mr Russell says. “And the historic ports of Camden and Carlisle from the patio. You also have an enviable position from which to watch ships as they enter and leave Cork Harbour.”

As well as the living room, there’s a kitchen diner downstairs and one ensuite bedroom. Mr Russell says Northcliffe would “benefit from modernisation”. There are another two bedrooms upstairs and a bathroom. The energy rating is E1.

“What you are buying is the location,” Mr Russell says. Roches Point Beach is literally at the feet of the terrace, while sandier White Bay is “just up the road”. The location is one that has attracted holiday homeowners — the agent says about 65% of homes in the row are holiday homes, including Northcliffe, with the rest owner/occupied. Some are rented out by the owners over the winter months. Rochespoint is heaving during the summer, Mr Russell says, and the area is served by nearby Whitegate, where there’s a Eurospar, a restaurant and a couple of pubs, with more services, in Aghada and Rostellan, while the town of Midleton is just a 15-minute spin.

Much closer to home is the famous Roches Point Lighthouse, which began aiding sea navigation in 1817. Its keepers were eventually withdrawn on April 1, 1995 on its conversion to automatic operation. There’s another famous terrace of old coastguard homes near the lighthouse.

For history buffs, there’s plenty to explore, not least the history of Roches Point Lighthouse itself and the nearby watchtowers, or whoever buys Northcliffe may also fancy digging deeper into its history.

VERDICT: No navigational aids needed to see the light when it comes to Northcliffe.

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