Perfect if you’d fancy a brush with river bank life

THERE’s a nautical touch to a house on Mallow’s chic Navigation Road — maybe its proximity to the River Blackwater inspired a boating theme.

New to the market, but old in style, is Twigfield, just on the edge of Mallow in North Cork, on the road from the roundabout to the racecourse, within a couple of minutes’ walk of the town itself and its railway station.

A canal formerly ran behind this road, along the inch stretch of the river, ferrying coal and other goods, and Twigfield backs onto this old waterways stretch and the house got its reportedly got its name from got trees harvested for twigs for making brushes.

Built in the early part of the 1900s, it is a matured two-storey house of character, with some wood beamed ceilings and unusual porthole windows, but it is now in need of modernisation.

It has a guide price of €450,000 with Mark Kelly of Hamilton Osborne King and joint agents Sherry FitzGerald O’Donovan, and bidders will be mindful of what further spending it will need.

They’ll need to look at heating, windows, kitchen, decor and a whole lot more, but will presumably work back from what a fine, finished house here would be worth and bid accordingly.

Assets include a mature acre of gardens giving tremendous privacy, a solidly built home in a Tudor revival style, and proximity to the town in a popular up-market location.

Rooms include a sitting room of the hall, with bay window and tiled fireplace, family room with beamed ceiling, fireplace and double doors to a wooded and panelled dining room with feature porthole windows, utility, guest loo and a compact kitchen with marble floor and an oil fired Aga.

Two of the four overhead bedrooms have fireplaces, and the main bedroom to the back with a large wood-faced dormer has porthole style windows inside.

The grounds include garage, glass house, fuel shed and stores.