Spacious city home on a historic leafy walk

YOU can sport and play at Westways, a six-bed house up for sale on Cork’s Western Road, backing onto the Mardyke, that leafy city walk famed in song and fable.

It is a place that presents urbanliving options too: there’s scope for use as a private house, to run a guesthouse business and there’s the possibility too of a second mews house site to the rear.

The three-storey house is new on the market with Brian Olden of Lisney, who guides it at €650,000.

It faces south, looking over towards UCC’s on-going western building spread and the Bon Secours hospital across the Western Road.

That puts the stunning Glucksman Gallery at a short remove for coffee and a slice of culture, while to the rear the Mardyke leaves you spoiled for choice. There’s the UCC indoor sports complex with pool and climbing wall alongside playing pitches, Fitzgerald’s Park and playground, the City Museum, Sunday’s Well tennis club, and Cork County Cricket Club all in a line, with the city centre only half a mile away.

Westways itself has a pedigree as a guesthouse, but could go private, and there’s a sporting chance of a mews site at the back which could be valued independently at up to €200,000.

Other properties in this line have added mews or bungalows, but the downside is that it cuts back on car parking options for the main house (though there’s still pedestrian side access from Western Road as the house is end of terrace).

Accommodation includes hall with stained-glass door, living room with old-style features, dining room, kitchen, three first-floor bedrooms and bathroom on the stairs return, and three second-floor bedrooms.

The house needs upgrading, but has oil central heating and has also been fitted with an alarm.