Sunday, December 11, 2011
Kilmacrane’s timber-frame, timber-clad design has a cosy Scandinavian feel on 15 private acres, says Tommy Barker
The house, built on the path of an old, abandoned butter road, has a covered veranda, facing west for sunsets
THERE’S a touch of Walton’s Mountain about Kilmacrane — a place you can imagine rearing a family, in a care-free, free-range setting. Heck, the house, built on the path of an old, abandoned butter road, even has a covered veranda, facing west for sunsets over the Nadd hills, and pitch-perfect for rocking chairs.
This is a big, wide open and accommodating home built in the noughties, which bucks the trend of block-built one-offs of boring and predictable design.
Thanks to its timber-clad upper floor, there’s a touch of Scandinavia, or North America, about this: it shares design similarities with homes built across the upper reaches of the northern hemisphere. It’s wooden, inside and out, and in its core, thanks to its timber-frame construction.
Although the BER test is only in the offing, as the house is new to market (the vendors are relocating for work reasons) it should score well for creature comforts, thanks to the timber-frame construction, sheeps-wool insulation, and Marvin timber-sash double-glazed windows.
There’s plenty of those windows too, giving a double aspect to some rooms. All the rooms are a good size and bright, with a rear service annex and back hall being the slightly dark spot, home to a large utility/pantry, plus huge ground-floor family bathroom with storage and space for a football team: here it holds toys, sports equipment and outdoor clothes for a bustling young family that relished its 15 acres of privacy.
Reached up a long, private approach drive and back a few fields from a quiet country road three miles from Banteer in north Cork, Kilmacrane is on a rolling holding of land facing south, toward the hills above Nadd, with a clutch of commercial windmills in the distance, far enough away not to be a nuisance, close enough to be hypnotic to those distracted by windspeed and weather.
Closer to hand are the gardens, sheds, out-buildings and small barn (with a stack of hand-cut turf for the house’s two solid-fuel stoves) vegetable patch — as well as a proper tarmac and fenced tennis court, for Wimbledon moments with your own home-grown strawberries. With all this land, you could even keep a cow for cream provisions.
Just going for sale with agent John Singleton, of Sherry FitzGerald O’Donovan, in Mallow, for a shade under the €400k mark, he says it could be a perfect, ready-made buy for those looking for space to roam, as a country retreat, or even as an equestrian/hobby farm. Location is 30 miles north of Cork city, reached via the hamlets of Lyre and Nadd over forested hills, or on better roads via Mallow and Banteer. Banteer, with its well-kept railway station, is three or four miles away.
With the amount of space, its utility, and good, well-draining land, Singleton says horses or livestock will be happy here, and there’s space behind the house for polytunnels galore, with a shelter-belt of mature beech, sycamore and lofty pine trees.
Inside Kilmacrane, space is generous pretty much everywhere, on all levels, with a wide hall and a bifurcating staircase in dark timber giving east and west approach options to a central landing with seating, storage and a library space by the south-facing window. All four bedrooms are doubles, one is en-suite, another has a large walk-around wardrobe/screened dressing area, and the big family bathroom has both a roll-top cast-iron bath and separate shower, with a second sink outside the door. This level also has a hobbyist’s photographic darkroom for those who haven’t fully switched to digital, handy for others with storage needs.
Truth be told, you won’t be caught for storage here in any case, thanks to the 3,300 sq ft of internal space, and that barn-like shed will swallow up anything else you’d care to throw at it. Handy for drying clothes, too (heating in the house is a mix of stoves, electric heaters, and oil-fired central heating, with some under-floor heating in the core areas.)
Downstairs is a 18’ by 15’ drawing room, with solid-fuel stove. Across the hall is a larger, 19’ by 17’ family room, also with a stove, access to the west-facing veranda, and sliding doors leading to the cavernous 27’ by 18’ kitchen/dining room, with green, Avon oil range cooker, high-beamed ceilings and timber posts, with two overhead Velux windows. There’s also a great utility/boot room, a home office, study, cool pantry, and that big, stone-flagged hall with a fan-lit front door to a small, sheltering porch.
VERDICT: For rural tranquillity, Kilmacrane is worth viewing.
© Examiner Publications (Cork) Limited, City Quarter, Lapps Quay, Cork. Registered in Ireland: 73385.
