Architect-designed property could court the buyers

Tommy Barker says Rockrohan Court has plenty of potential

THREE into one does go, at least in the case of Rockrohan Court, a spot on Cork’s Model Farm Road where the pavilion form has been done out in triplicate.

Built in the 1970s to an architect’s firm fingerprint, it has three largely square forms interlinked to give a fine family home, with well over 3,000 sq ft of space.

It hit the 2008 market just last weekend, and early viewings have people pleased and perplexed in almost equal measures by the potential it holds.

Its location is its prime strength, followed by the acreage, 2.25 acres in this green-belted area just west of Cork city’s main hospitals (the vendor is a medic) and its two third-level colleges.

But, don’t overlook the house. Dated (in the better sense of the word) as the house is in its decor, those who look beyond it and see the logic and flow of interior space will begin to value it all the more. After all, there aren’t too many family homes that could have hosted a family wedding for 250 (with a marquee easily located on the lawns), or 350 medics in Cork for an academic conference, all milling about for drinks, a buffet and a second opinion.

Rockrohan Court has its six bedrooms (three with en suites) divided out to the two end wings, so there’s privacy for all, including guests, and the main family bathroom is a bit of a time-piece, with a sunken bath with gold taps, and chequerboard black and white tiling. It is as authentic in its period styling as a claw-foot bath in a Victorian original.

Its middle core is the beating heart and home to a very big lounge (with low level gas fire in a reconstituted quartz stone chimney breast) a formal dining room with dual aspect, a kitchen/breakfast room divided by a low counter and ancillary rooms as well. There’s also a bar, which manages to avoid the normal cheesy look of this questionable domestic fixture.

Linking corridors or halls are rooms in themselves, especially the long rear hall which both looks out on and opens out to the sheltered back courtyard and garden, which is complete with a heated outdoor swimming pool and courtyard/terrace.

There are several covering up options for the pool, winter and summer, and there’s a pavilion-like pool house with changing room, WC and shower.

Its vendor is only selling as he is down-sizing, and Michael McKenna of McKenna O’Donoghue Clarke Real Estate Alliance is charged with the sale.

It has a price tag of €2.5 million, and it will take more spending: the gamut will run from painting the dark wood ceilings a lighter shade and redecorating/flooring, to an more major overhaul. Some will even think about knocking and replacing.

Some of the design/decor touches are the equivalent of 1970s flared jeans and cheesecloth shirts: they come around into fashion briefly again every now and then. It still has original 1970s recessed lighting in much of its ceilings, as well as vents, and the original low-level central heating and concealed rads has largely been replaced with electric storage heating: it works a treat, and the house is warm, says the vendor, who has already put in double glazing, recently re-roofed and rewired.

The grounds have been scrupulously kept, and are fringed in part by an avenue of 150-year-old trees, while more recent planting includes a spreading chestnut tree, tulip tree, magnolia, and sundry rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and more. Trenches of suitable soil were trucked in to get the growing base right for these acid loving plants, and they spill over one another in sequential colour. Views from many of the windows are colourful still lifes, waiting to be painted by budding artists.

The fact many of the windows are tall helps bring even more light into the house: it is reckoned that tall windows bring in more light than wide ones given our northern hemisphere latitude, while the frequency of corner windows, given the structure’s collection of three pavilion boxes maximising outside walls, adds to the vista viewing potential.