€2.5m Cork home owned by founders of Waterstone fertility clinic up for sale

Set on 2.35 acres, the Arts and Crafts home combines heritage architecture with extraordinary landscaped gardens

Windyridge, Rochestown Road

Location: Cork City
€2.5m
Size	335sq m (3,606sq ft)
Bedrooms	6
Bathrooms	4
BER	F

‘Right side of the road’ jokes can wear a bit thin, but if house sizes are genuinely bigger, development is less dense and plots are more generous, then surely there is some basis to the claim?

On Rochestown Road, the ‘right side’ has been cementing its reputation for nearly a century. 

Families with money and ambitions to match first began migrating to this close-to-city rural location, where relatively low land values allowed them to build impressive homes. 

Ultimately, the ‘right side’ became a self-fulfilling prophecy, as from the mid-1950s onwards, the opposite side was more densely developed and, therefore, featured smaller homes.

Anchored firmly to the ‘right side’ is Windyridge, built on lands originally associated with Maryborough House, and purchased in 2014 by John and Susan Waterstone, founders of the Waterstone fertility clinic at Lotamore House in Tivoli. 

It’s one of about a dozen substantial properties beyond the Fingerpost roundabout on a stretch dubbed Millionaires’ Row, where house sale prices have been decidedly frothy for well over a decade. 

The Waterstones paid €1.6m for Windyridge in 2014; more seven-figure sales followed as neighbouring properties changed hands. In 2024, jaws dropped when nearby Kennit House — home to a pair of hospital consultants — sold for €3m, albeit rumour has it they made €1m less than they paid at the height of the market in 2007.

As all of the houses have generous acreage, some owners have hived off portions of land in recent years for their own use, including architect-designed downsizer homes.

This is not the case at Windyridge, even though there is scope for several homes in its 2.35a gardens. 

Passing motorists would be hard pressed to imagine what lies behind the mature belt of trees that screens it from the main road. 

Apart from the house itself —designed in classic arts-and-craft style (think The Wind in the Willows’ Toad Hall or Beatrix Potter’s Lake District cottages) — there’s a quite extraordinary site, as tranquil as a monastic retreat and as magnificently landscaped as a stately home show garden. No surprises to hear it picked up Munster honours in the 2000 All-Ireland garden competition.

While the Waterstones have maintained the expansive gardens, much of what is seen today is the legacy of previous owners, who acquired the property in the early 1970s from the Thompson bakery family. 

The Thompsons built Windyridge in 1939, embracing the arts-and-crafts tradition, which was already being eclipsed by modernism, making Windyridge an end-of-era marker in domestic architecture.

No one could argue that the gardens — which include an (overgrown) tennis court, an ornamental pond, paved sitting-out areas, and a truly ‘secret’ garden, as well as a detached garage — are anything but special, or that the previous owners were anything other than green-fingered visionaries. The Waterstones’ description of it as “astonishingly beautiful” is entirely accurate.

They note that it’s been curated over many years and is home “to an amazing collection of rare and unusual species”. 

“Among its many highlights, the variety of camellias is particularly outstanding— each season bringing an abundance of blooms that allowed me to fill my home with wonderful displays,” Susan says.

Windyridge is not the home she is referring to as the Waterstones never lived there. While they had intended to redesign and renovate and “make it our own”, other projects took precedence.

“In particular, much of our focus in recent years has been dedicated to the renovation of Lotamore House, in Tivoli, and the development of a centre of excellence for fertility care. This has been an important and rewarding undertaking, but one that necessarily required our time, attention, and resources,” the Waterstones added.

With family in Dublin, circumstances changed, and the decision was made to sell up.

While the 335sq m, six-bed house, unlived in for more than a decade, will need work and extensive upgrades, its architectural integrity remains “exceptionally sound”, according to selling agent Brian Olden, of Cohalan Downing. 

For sure, it needs an overhaul, but the fundamentals are strong, and there is much obvious craftsmanship and quality finishes still intact. 

And if the dark joinery can feel oppressive, new owners have the comfort of knowing that the main rooms face south, overlooking those glorious gardens, and that a good architect will know how to get the most out of Windyridge, while simultaneously respecting its arts & crafts heritage.

As the Waterstones point out, “there’s a quiet magic to the space”, which makes it all the more special, given how close it is to the hustle and bustle of Douglas village and the busy arterial road network that feeds into the South Link Road. Windyridge comes to market with an AMV of €2.5m.

VERDICT: Killer combination of large, detached, one-off heritage home, in remarkable gardens, on a road that is still home to some of Cork City’s best old stock. A family would surely cherish it, but the site size might attract a different kind of buyer.

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