Superbly shipshape

SKELLIGS has its selling points in abundance it's a solid and sound house, with a sought-after, salubrious suburban address.

Built in 1937, it has the marks of a house where attention to detail was paid at the start and no financial corners were cut.

That's only part of the reason why this four-bedroomed Douglas, Cork, home carries a €1.3 million price guide and it will be hotly pursued.

Strongest selling points are its location, and site/garden size. It is on 0.7 of an acre, and the mature and private gardens have had decades of care and planting lavished on them.

Skelligs is on Woodview, an elbow-shaped road which links the main Douglas Road with the Well Road.

In Cork terms, addresses don't get much better than here. (Cork people of a certain hue will describe it as a park, rather than an estate.)

Woodview has, perhaps, two dozen houses along its length, ranging from manageable mid-1900s bungalows to very large early 1900s red-brick semis and some seriously impressive detached post-war homes on large grounds.

The last significant house sale here was probably Kilbrin, also on large grounds, which tipped over the 1 million mark in late 2003.

Now, Malcolm Tyrrell of Cohalan Downing has this plum of a home hitting the market, and even though there's little or no scope for a second site on the extensive grounds, it is going to make a hefty sum for its owners, who have been in caring occupation for the last 40 years.

Skelligs was built in 1937 for a member of the Doyle family, known for their shipping and boating connections. Several of the other Cork houses built down the years by the Doyles also got named after coastal landmarks Fastnet on the Blackrock Road is another of this ilk.

Skelligs is a house with integrity and instant appeal, but anyone who buys at this level will take its existing good order as a mild bonus they'll be looking to extend, modernise and upgrade. It is almost 100 feet back from the road at Woodview, and its gardens stretch back several hundred more feet, with pond, patios and planting all to be privately enjoyed.

The obvious place to extend Skelligs is to the back, with a new kitchen and maybe a master suite overhead, but then an extension to the side would balance it out and give this house the 'weight' it deserves from the road as well.

Bidders will have fun seeing the possibilities and weighing the options.