Cork harbour home is awash with opportunity

Tommy Barker says now that Cork harbour has rediscovered its mojo, so too will properties like Simla.

Glenbrook, Cork €350,000

Sq m 220 (2,375 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 5

Bathrooms: 1/2

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Best Feature: Harbourside home comes on stream

Time and tides wait for no man — and this Glenbrook home called Simla has seen over 71,000 tides ebb and flow into Cork’s harbour during its current family’s generations of occupation.

Just falling short of 100 years in the same family’s ownership is this detached period home of over 2,300 sq ft, and with five bedrooms, elevated above the road through Glenbrook from Passage West towards Monkstown.

Likely to date to the mid-1800s, and set between Belgrave Place and River View Terrace, the double-bay fronted home has been owned by members of the Roberts family since 1919 — before the founding of the State -, and would have witnessed a sea-change in shipping styles and boat activity within the harbour.

It’s all set again for a new chapter, as Port of Cork last month got permission from An Bord Pleanála to relocate its city quays activities to Ringaskiddy, withe move likely to start around 2018, and as hopes were announced at the Ocean to City race weekend for a 60 kilometre ‘ BlueWay’ series of trails for small craft.

That weekend race saw 170 overseas participants, and over 500 craft taking part. And,the weeks since has seen a whole series of events and gatherings aimed at enhancing public use and appreciation of the inner and out harbour.

Sales agents for Simla are Jackie Cohalan and Malcolm Tyrrell of Cohalan Downing, guiding at €350,000 and they describe it as striking, and with breath-taking views over the inner harbour at Glenbrook.

But, as it prepares to change hands, the 170-year old home today needs further spending and modernising, they admit. Yet, the good news is that much of the originality is still here, including double sash windows in the front two-storey bays or slight protrusions.

The entrance porch is to the right, offset, and off the hall are linked reception rooms, pleasant rooms of their era, replete with corniced ceilings, picture rails (for paintings of nautical scenes?) and original fireplaces and sash windows.

Behind is a study, a store and a basic kitchen with old Aga and tall window, with enclosed yard beyond.

There’s a bathroom and separate WC on the half landing, next to bedroom five, and the main first floor has four more carpeted bedrooms. And, there’s a stairs to an attic level.

As in the downstairs formal rooms, many of the bedrooms’ windows have shutters.

Most of the ground coming with Simla is to the front, with a well-kept lawn and path, front paved terrace, shrubbed boundaries with some mature trees, and there’s harbour/Lee views from inside and outside.

For those into boats, there’s a lofted garage behind amid spreading laurel bushes, with enough space to stow a dinghy or a car.

Location is along/above a quiet higher road through Glenbrook, about seven miles from Cork city by road, a somewhat shorter haul by water.

Simla’s going to have an appeal for those who like and value period authenticity in their homes, and while it has this abundance (and hasn’t been mucked with, so you’re not paying for and then undoing inappropriate alterations,) it does need concomitant spending on some upgrades to give decades more of comfortable habitations.

VERDICT: Cork harbour has rediscovered its mojo, and houses like Simla along and overseeing its banks and waterways will rise with that tide.