Perfect location for small cottage set amid mature greenery in city

A GREENED-IN hideaway site comes with the compact cottage, Woodley Lodge.

What this two-bed might lack in size stakes it makes up for in terms of location, built on the Douglas village end of Cork’s affluent Rochestown Road.

At one time a gate lodge for the main house Woodley (that bigger affair was at one-time home of former Ford Ireland, and later on Waterford Crystal boss, Paddy Hayes) the lodge is a mid-1900s built, held on a long lease with about 200 years to run.

The single-storey dwelling is in two sections, set amid mature greenery, behind a high stone wall, on a almost pear-shaped roadside site with a southerly aspect to the rear, with garden decking and a pond. Beyond its glazed porch, it squeezes in a hall with high-level shelving, a 18’ by 13’ living room, with high pitched ceilings and some Veluxes, with a painted brick fireplace and shelving and some built-ins. The floor is oak and this room has French doors opening to decked seating area, with fish pond and tree-fern in pride of place for an almost jungle glade effect.

One of the two bedrooms has garden access, the kitchenette is 13’ by 8’ with a tiled floor, painted wood units, wood-panelled ceiling and there’s a tiled splashback. The bathroom has a three-piece suite, further shelving and a heated towel rail, with tiled floor. Heating is via electric storage units, much of the house has a green cloak of growth, and there’s off-street parking.

Joint agents for Woodley Lodge are Dennis Guerin of Frank V Murphy Associates in Cork city and Cotter and Associates, Fountainstown and the price guide is €450,000-plus. Some of the neighbouring big Rochestown Road homes set record prices of €4m or so paid during the boom years.