Fit for a merchant prince

ST BRANDON'S is a trophy home-to-be, worthy of some TLC.

The three-storey, 5,000 sq ft detached Georgian house is in city's address of legend Montenotte and has the sort of attributes which remind house-hunters just why this chic residential area got its reputation in the first place.

Montenotte is close enough to walk to and from the city centre. It is mature, elevated, discreetly wealthy, and most of the houses have southerly aspects and river views.

The area has a select gathering of large period properties on a residential golden mile with almost 200 years of property pedigree. It has been the address of choice of merchant princes for generations and was sufficiently established as a prime location to be lampooned by Frank Hall's Seventies satirical TV show, Hall's Pictorial Weekly, for its cloistered wealth, upward mobility and lofty aspirations.

In truth, though, its residents have had the last laugh.

Set at the very upper end of the city's housing market, St Brandon's carries a €1.5 million price guide with Brian Olden of Lisney's, and it will need further spending .

Lisney's have made a strong foray into Cork's upmarket housing sector in the last two years, setting a new price record of €4 million for Gortalough on the Rochestown Road, €1.8 million for Mount Patrick on five acres in Glanmire, €900,000 for Ballygarvan Rectory, and last week got an unconfirmed €820,000-plus for a 1970s house in Janeville on the Blackrock Road.

St Brandon's is on three-quarters of an acre of long-matured grounds with patio, fountain shrub borders and lawns, a curved driveway, overlooked by spreading laurels just beyond the top of Lovers Walk.

St Brandon's dates to the mid-1800s, and has a two-storey bow window with southerly aspect, pillared entrance portico, a large hall and private accommodation spread over three levels.

It needs upgrading and restoration to capitalise on its surviving period features, and it will take a bit of vision and some financial security to bring it back to a sufficiently grand decorative state. .

These big Montenotte homes only surface once every few generations, and some of the largest have been put to commercial use.

In contrast, though, the former Arbutus House Hotel, and an adjoining Montenotte property, sold last year for €1.8 million, and its purchaser Sean Keohane (who is also currently restoring Ravenscourt House on the Well Road/Skehard Road) plans to return Arbutus to private residential use.