Wine and food writer Tom Doorley is swapping his large Victorian house in leafy Belgrave Square in Monkstown, Co Dublin, for another, even older period home in Cork. He has bought a bow-fronted 18th century house on 2.5 acres overlooking the River Lee, near Cobh, for over £400,000 from Michael H. Daniels in Mallow. The Hermitage, in Rushbrooke, Co Cork, is a six-bedroom house tucked away behind walled gardens on land that was once part of the Fota estate.

It's said that an order of French nuns lived there for many years, hence the name. Best of all for Tom and his wife, Joanne, is that they are likely to be £100,000 or so richer after the move: their current 5,000 sq ft home, 43 Belgrave Square, is expected to set a record for the square when it is sold at auction by Ganly Walters in a few weeks' time. The prediction is that it will make over £650,000.