The genuine article

A GEORGIAN period home, dating to the mid-1700s and well-maintained down through the centuries, is for sale just outside Cork city.

The Georgian tag gets bandied about loosely in this country, getting extended way past its sell-by date and well into Queen Victoria's reign.

But Brookville House, on the edge of Glanmire and four miles from Cork city is the genuine article, sitting on 20 very valuable acres of grounds - one of which is strictly for the birds and the fishes.

There's a one-acre duck pond at the start of the long entrance drive to this five-bedroom modest beauty on what is now an almost immodest amount of land, mostly in pasture with mature trees.

Surprisingly too, much of the 20 acres is walled-in, making for a very natural sense of enclosure and security for any new owners.

It is a case of what you have, you keep, and Brookville has been well kept over the last decades by its owners who have made measured rather than radical alterations to the house.

Brookville has long-serving sash windows, oil-fired central heating, and a master bedroom en-suite. In fact, the house has four or five bathrooms in all, showing the march of progress in the plumbing and piping department.

The main reception rooms have typically graceful proportions, with decorative detailing such as cornice and rose plaster work, dados and good fireplaces. The entire house has a sense of symmetry although the fan-lit front door is off to one side of the centrally-set entrance porch.

Off the main hall, there's a sitting room with marble chimneypiece, a 21ft by 16ft dining room with polished granite fireplace. The similarly-sized study has a Bath stone fireplace as well as patio access. The family room has twin sets of French doors to the gardens.

The kitchen has been upgraded in latter years, and has oak units, gas hob and electric oven. What, no range?

At least, the utility room has that other country house standby, a Belfast sink, and the back hall has plenty of storage.

Peter Cave of Hamilton Osborne King guides Brookville at €1.5 million plus, and he reckons it will be bought by a Cork city family looking to get a country house lifestyle.

It will suit the burgeoning number of buyers looking for "land for horses" and has two loose boxes at present among its range of outbuildings, as well as a hay barn and lofted garage.

It might also fit the bill for a buyer who has sold land for development and who won't bat an eyelid at the €1.5 million price tag.

And, in future, the walled-in 20 acres may well yield a handsome harvest of house sites, whether for development or for grown family members, making Brookville a very shrewd acquisition indeed.