Horses for courses

HORSES are par for the course at Blake House, a compact and restored Georgian home on 18 acres of land in east Cork.

"The place is steeped in horses, some fine National Hunt runners were trained here down the years by Billy McLernon, and it's a racing certainty that a new owner too will be keen on keeping horses here, possibly for family use," says estate agent Dominic Daly.

He is taking up the reins of sale and looking to push it past the finishing post by way of auction, indicating a €1.5 million price guide.

The decision to sell by auction is simply to expedite a sale, said Mr Daly, as a number of other country properties in the same price bracket have been on the market for months at a time or longer.

While Blake House has the trappings of country lifestyle, with residence, converted coach house, land, 14 loose boxes, lofted stone out-buildings with conversion potential, all-weather riding arena (woodchippings) and equestrian event course, it is close enough to Cork city for a daily commute, just about 10 miles.

Blake House could find a city-based buyer looking to pick up a place with space for ponies and horses, and Dominic Daly reckons some of the better-heeled professionals will rise to the bait; a clutch of recent €1 million-plus Cork sales appear to have gone to medical consultants, he points out.

Without casting aspersions on the talents of assorted scalpel wielders, previous owners of Blake House have themselves been handy with the knives.

One of the first owners in the mid 1800s was Daniel Twomey, a butcher (politely known as a victualler) also know as Red Beard, whose proclivity with the cleaver saw him build up a lucrative export trade to America at one stage, possibly provisioning ships.

Another owner was John Blake Twomey, and other family surnames of owners includes Thompsons, Mullanes and Grifins.

The current owners, in situ since the mid-1990s, have done a major overhaul on the property, inside and out, including converting a stone coachhouse into a self-catering two-bedroomed apartment, with ground floor living room, kitchen and overhead beds and bathroom.

The main residence, with painted plaster finish, newly added front porch and distinctive grouped arched windows, has four first floor bedrooms, two good-sized reception rooms to the front kitchen with Rayburn cooker, office/pantry and utility.

There's a guest loo at ground level, and the main bathroom at first floor level has a cast iron bath, part wood-panelled walls and shower cubicle. There's a large bright landing area with picture-sized window on a gable wall, and scope for extending the house over the wings to the side - something a new owner might do as none of the bedrooms is en suite.

Joined to the right hand side of the house is a sun room, with sliding doors and side window, without internal access to the main house at present.