Original of the species

WITH Blackrock Castle as a neighbour, and some of Cork's finer individual period homes all in a row, Castle Road in Cork is a special and covetable address.

New to the market here in a spot favoured by Sunday walkers, and an area targeted by Cork City Council for improvements, is one of the road's original 19th century homes, Rockmahon House.

Part of a terrace of three Blackrock village homes (which might at one stage have been just two, or even one home), each with individual architectural features, it is semi-detached on a spacious site of one-third of an acre with a garden gazebo by the roadside.

It faces north towards Tivoli hills and docks, and the River Lee, and east towards Blackrock Castle, and its annexe is bounded at the back by another property, a converted stables.

Owned in recent decades by a medical family with an antique shop business, it has been cleared of its furnishing finery which would have given a stronger indication of the sort of entertaining lifestyle a house of this size and character is ideal for.

It has three good reception rooms, with fine marble fireplaces and a generous parquet floored hall separating them.

There are five bedrooms one with a bay window, ideal for a first floor salon or drawing room. It has three bathrooms, a large old kitchen and a multitude of smaller services rooms to the back in an annexe.

It has many period features intact, such as working shutters in almost all of the windows, a Victorian tiled front porch, some restrained plasterwork ceilings, an Aga cooker and old enamel sinks, and a slate roof, so both the bones and detailing are excellent.

But, while the main reception rooms are in good overall order, the house does need some work particularly in the lesser rooms to the rear.

In any case, bidders on this desirable property will be budgeting for modernisation in their calculations.

Estate agent Dennis Guerin of Frank V Murphy and Co gives this property a guide price of in excess of €570,000, which probably reflects the work that needs to be done.

He says the location is one which has been highly prized for generations, and that the house is a genuine older home of character and merit. Mr Guerin estimates the floor area at about 3,600 sq ft.

Meanwhile, Cork City Council has recently advertised for a sort of public private partnership investment to refurbish Blackrock Castle which it bought last year, and plans a riverside amenity walkway from the city to the castle, while the €500 million Mahon Point development which is just now on site will transform the Blackrock/Mahon area in five years time.

Also, an apartment development by the Boat Club is in the wings, and considerable house building is set for the grounds of the Ursuline Convent and School which sold last year.

Lisneys have two apartments in an almost completed scheme of 16 available for €270,000 each on Castle Road, while Marshs auctioneers seek €450,000 for a mid-terraced period old-world home 'Eudion' which featured in these pages last Autumn.