Douglas v Carrigaline (Cork)

purely from a travel point of view i would say douglas as the road from carrigaline to douglas and onwards to mahon can be slow especially at peak times. Ideally if you could avoid douglas village it would make the journey easier. If you dont know the area would strongly recommend investigating in detail the traffic aspect during various times e.g 7 am 8 am 9 am and likewise in the evening.
 
I'd go for douglas op. The traffic in carrigaline can be horrendous at peak times - even if you were to avoid the main street by buying on the Cork side. Also it would be nearer for work.
 
I concur with the previous posters.

Carrigaline is said to be the most car-dependent town in Ireland.
 
Douglas.
Living on the outskirts of Douglas I can honestly say the only drawback of Douglas is the cost of shopping, eating out, nights out/ It is high as it is the trendy kinda suburb. C'line might have its advantages but for resale Douglas would be also better and thats the conclusion we came to. Traffic can be just as nasty down the well road from Mahon but if its C'line you have to go through that or up by CSO - both of which are mental during the usual busy times. If you are a country person then i would pick C'line -along the passage road by the water is just lovely!
Which area do you like yourself?
 
I can't think of any reasons why someone who knows these two areas might pick Carrigaline over Douglas - except for price. You would get a better house for your money in Carrigaline. However, Douglas is incredibly convenient. It has the shopping centres, restaurants, pubs, etc. Good schools and easy access to city centre.
 
You can easily cycle from Douglas to Mahon and into town. If you choose Carrigaline you are tied to the car.
 
Would you consider Mahon area itself?

If it was me I would also go with Douglas if I had to choose between thw two
 
i would say cork side of carrigaline, if you lived in herons wood you can access it from fern hilll road off the ringaskiddy road and bypass carrigaline completely and its associated traffic also better value for money IMO and house quality is better, douglas has terrible traffic, worst than carrigaline due to the way douglas is broken up into different sections. Also beware of the rough sections of douglas...but again it depends on lot on your age/kids etc
 
i would say cork side of carrigaline, if you lived in herons wood you can access it from fern hilll road off the ringaskiddy road and bypass carrigaline completely and its associated traffic also better value for money IMO and house quality is better, douglas has terrible traffic, worst than carrigaline due to the way douglas is broken up into different sections. Also beware of the rough sections of douglas...but again it depends on lot on your age/kids etc

am in herons wood in carrigaline and would have to agree
 
it depends on what you are looking for. I would see Douglas as a surburb of the City and Carrigaline as a town so two different types of places. Douglas has all the amenities you could want and is also very close to City whereas Carrigaline doesn't have as much. They are in the process of building a large shopping centre in Douglas at the moment so there will be more but there are definite traffic problems in Douglas especially at the moment and you could probably get a bigger and better house in Carrigaline. Differents types of areas imo.
 
I agree with BK2, there is also a new town center planned for carrigaline which will enhance the town when completed.
 
I can't think of any reasons why someone who knows these two areas might pick Carrigaline over Douglas - except for price. You would get a better house for your money in Carrigaline. However, Douglas is incredibly convenient. It has the shopping centres, restaurants, pubs, etc. Good schools and easy access to city centre.
Everywhere has advantages i suppose!
Douglas is very congested Thursday through sunday and in the mornings traffic to the link goes well back into Frankfield and Rochestown road and also because it is full of young families the schools are chocka - one primary - the girls school is supposed to have 600 children enrolled. But i will say Douglas has 3 great bus services now 6,7,16 and 19 orbital so it is most definately a suburb of a city as opposed to a satelite town.
 
If you care about your social life at all you'll pick Douglas. There's a better choice of pubs and restaurants in Douglas and it's no decision at all to go to town for those pubs, restaurants, clubs, theatre etc.

Anyone I know that moved to Carrigaline to be able to afford a house swore blind that their social life wouldn't be affected and of course it was... they just started swearing blind that the pubs and restaurants in Carrigaline were just as good. I think they were trying to covince themselves as much as me...

BTW you might buy a house 'in Carrigaline' but there's very little available housing within reasonable walking distance. The sprawl of estates compared to the size of the actual town centre is horrendous.

I wouldn't say you'll get a better house for your bucks - I'd say you'll get the same house for less money. A 3-bed semi is a 3-bed semi - they didn't somehow build flasher houses in Carrigaline.
 
all is well and good giving this advice but OP has already bought in Carrigaline so might be a little too late
 
Any one any ideas on which is the better area to buy?
Working in the Mahon area.

Most definitely Douglas. Carraigaline is a considerable distance outside the city, despite its illusion of closeness. Also traffic can be heavy. Anecdottaly from my colleagues I also believe Carraigaline schools are bursting at the seams and people are having to send kids to places like Ballygarvan etc due to place shortage.

Only disadvantage of Douglas is that its difficult to park in the village but it has a city bus system, would be cheaper for taxis etc.
 
no place shortage in schools in Carrigaline. New Educate Together school opening in Sept. People chose to send their children to Ballygarvan etc for various reasons - mixed school, small school, they may have heard that such a school may lose a teacher based on numbers next year, on their route to work, later start in Ballygarvan too as far as I know. There is definitely no place shortage in Carrigaline schools.
 
I would be careful about buying in Carrigaline as you may have difficulties selling at a later stage. Carrigaline has mushroomed in recent years and supply of houses in Carrigaline will far exceed demand for housing for quite some time to come.
 
Just another vote for Douglas - lived there for some years and liked it a lot - LL
 
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