If you’re looking for a restoration project, then Rosebank is for you

THE multi-gabled Skibbereen house, Rosebank, is being practically priced for sale by auction: a declared reserve of €850,000 is quoted for the period era west home, on 14 acres.

That reserve (in other words, if there’s no better offer, it’s yours) should certainly get a few pulses racing, and while this house of character has an appeal to the heart, the work needed to bring it back into shape will see the head trying to restrain or temper the heart’s desire.

Described by estate agent Ray O’Neill of Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill as a manor house, it was originally a dower house for the far grander Liss Ard Estate, with the Georgian Liss Ard House and the equally fine Lake Lodge on 200 acres put up for sale back in 2002 for €6 million — and not yet changed hands.

While Rosebank is said to predate the Georgian Liss Ard house, its style appears solidly Victorian, with high gables, carved fascias, bay windows and tall chimney pots.

In fact, the house has no fewer than 12 gables, which also means lots of interesting roof and valley hips, shapes and profiles.

Unfortunately, those same valleys also give scope for lead flashing failure and leaks, and this house has had its fair share of water.

It now needs a full-blooded conservation job, so bring the engineers for a look-see and estimate of budget required for further work.

Making it worth the time, effort and cash needed are the house itself, its stone and brick outbuildings, the 14 acres of good land, and the privacy and proximity to Skibbereen (two miles), just out the road to chic Castletownshend.

Not lived in since the early 2000s, it is set up a long wooded approach avenue, near the Russagh mill outdoor pursuits centre adjoining the Liss Ard Estate and the grounds have lots of mature trees and shrubs. Good bones, like the house itself.

It has six first floor bedrooms, two formal reception rooms plus a family room, kitchen, workshop and stores/pantry, large entry hall with high ceiling, and main and secondary staircases (the back one serves two back bedrooms.)

“The building is an ideal restoration project in a prime location, with all the potential to recreate a splendid example of gracious living reminiscent of a bygone period while enjoying modern facilities,” say Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill of this executor property sale, taking it to auction on October 22 — a week after Budget 2009.