House of the week

IF YOU think five acres of private gardens (just past Cork City’s suburban boundaries) might be too much to maintain, shame on you: the caretaker-gardener is 82 years and drives his ride-on mower like a boy racer.

About the only things missing from the stripped-down lawnmower used by the octogenarian groundsman are alloy wheels and a spoiler: other than that, it’s a mean machine to match its pilot, who’s also incidentally a Papal Knight.

Here at the foot of Spur Hill, while the mower man didn’t quite labour in the vineyards of the Lord, he did the next best thing, tending the pristine five-acre gardens and lawns of well-known retired obstetrician and medical lecturer Paddy Kieran and Mary Kieran.

Keeping a patch of lawn in near perfect order is no mean feat in a standard-enough suburban home. At Balbridie, on Meagher’s Lane at Chetwynd near the Viaduct and Bishopstown, the miracle has been maintained on acres of mounded and flowing lawns, and oak-lined 300 metre avenue. There’s hardly as well-tended a site of such size anywhere around.

“It’s all down to the man, I just do what he tells me, but you couldn’t keep up with him,” says Balbridie’s vendor Paddy Kieran, downsizing after their family of four are reared and gone.

They’d bought this site, one of three of similar size hived off from farm fields, back in 1989, and they drafted in architect Bertie Pope to design a sprawling, 4,000 sq ft family home with wrap-around wings and lots of brick towards the higher end of the green plot.

It’s about a mile from the end of Cork’s south ring road and where the new Bandon Road flyover is going to ease commuter traffic, and so for any new owners, getting in and out of the city (and to major hospitals like the CUH) will be a breeze. Back on the five acres, meanwhile, the views from the house are right up the Lee Valley, and well beyond, right to Mullaghanish, the County Bounds, and, in winter, the snow-covered Paps....not a bad distant view for a house called after Balbridie, in the Western Scottish Highlands.

Cork’s Balbridie appears wide, and low-slung, while in truth it’s just large, and taller than you’d expect, with a double height feature hall intersected by a stairs/landing, and with some curving internal walls to reduce the sense of scale.

Six bedrooms here in all, with two en suites plus main family bathroom and all six rooms are easily doubles: the master bedroom, meanwhile, has a double aspect and the best of views.

The main ground level has a very large (24’ by 18) drawing room with ash floor and twin-tone marble fireplace with gas insert, and off is a dining room, perfect for entertaining guests, with its own bar, and next up along the front of the house is a 19’ by 18’ family room, almost nautical in its feel, with beamed ceiling. This is one of several rooms opening to a double aspected, skirting lean-to conservatory with south and west aspects.

There’s a great open kitchen, with triple aspect (and gardens views every which way,) with Siematic units, granite tops and island. The ground level also fits in a home office/study, extensively shelved, a large utility/laundry, plus two WCs, and there’s internal access to a double garage, with twin electric roller shutter doors, plus a workshop. And, even the workshop door here is in well-varnished hardwood.

Selling agent is Barry Smith, who’s just joined Marian Rose Properties in Cork. He seeks offers around €95,000 and he says it’s one of the best spacious packages to come to Cork market for some time, with acreage and privacy so close to the city.

VERDICT: Room to sprawl, inside and out, a great package, just needing a decorative update and tweaks.