Gardens of Eden a walk from the city

IT is probably the best house on the Cross Douglas Road in Cork - and so the €1 million barrier will be breached for enviable Edenvale.

Recent large period semis sales on this linking residential stretch between the front and back Douglas Roads have gone from around €600,000 to over €750,000. However, this house - on the market with Ann O’Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald pitched at the €1 million mark - is set to push the price barrier quite a bit further than the neighbours. And, rightly so.

It is bigger, broader, and, quite rightly given its Edwardian period provenance, quite masculine in character. But that’s not all - the big selling point here literally is big - it is the whopper of a rear garden.

At some stage in its past, previous owners managed to acquire some of the neighbours’ garden to add to their own space, so now this three-storey family home is to the front of what is about a half-acre site.

There’s enough room to the front on a printed concrete drive to get in two or three cars: this is a selling point too, as the Cross Douglas Road tends to get car-congested.

A wide patio whisks around the side of this 3,500 sq ft semi and its neatly stitched on porch entrance, and wraps around the side conservatory and rear annexe. From here the lawns spread on, running back several hundred feet to the boundary with Nemo Rangers GAA club, with a century-old Scots Pine marking the boundary.

Despite the space, it seems an easy, un-fussed garden to keep and there’s a choice of pear and apple trees for a taste of nature’s suburban bounty.

This is almost to forget about the house itself, but the good news is that the brick-fronted, 1904-built house fully delivers on the site’s immediate appeal.

Ground level has twin reception rooms with original fireplaces, and sliding connecting doors. There’s a sunny, glazed sun-room/dining space off the kitchen which has an Aga, and beyond looking towards the expanse of gardens is a multi-purpose room (play-room, study, dining) with high ceiling.

Each of the top two floors has two bedrooms, all with fireplaces, and the top bedroom runs the full width of the house, with fireplaces at either end and a balcony at its window.

Directly beneath, the master bedroom is made even bigger thanks to a deep bay window, and the house’s main bathroom (the only one, apart from a ground floor guest loo) is on the first-floor return, and has a cast iron bath and separate shower. Heating is by gas, and the house had double glazing.