Mellow brick and sunrooms at Douglas homes with estuary view

IN 2003, as the property market began to accelerate, a house and site on the Well Road, Douglas, Cork, went on the market at offers in excess of €500,000.

Manakin was a substantial two-storey house, but its site ran to a half acre, with frontage onto the Well Road and Lake Lawn.

The property was bought for close to €700,000 and changed hands again as part of a site accumulation that brought the total area to a little less than an acre.

An involved planning saga eventually saw an apartment scheme (with contentious access from Lake Lawn), whittled down to just three stand-alone houses on the enlarged site.

Today, these are being offered with full planning at prices from €800,000 for 4,200 sq ft homes on sites of 0.25 acres apiece.

Joint agents for the sale are Terence O’Leary of Murray Browne and Jarlath Boyd of Savills who are prepared to sell individually or the entire block for offers of about €2.3 million.

The proposed dwellings fit the site neatly and are accessed by a private gated entrance from the Well Road.

Architect-designed, these houses are big in that ‘Surrey Downs/Alderley Edge-style’ that has proven so popular at Horsehead, Passage West.

Those Horsehead houses start at €1.6m and by comparison, the Well Road site prices range from €800,000 to €850,000.

Designed with mellow brick, Georgian windows and fanlights at dormer level, the plans also include large sunroom projections, canopied entrances with a double entrance doorway and accommodation over three floors.

All three units should have views over the Douglas estuary when they’re built, and in terms of accessibility they’re just a walk away from the village and minutes from Mahon Point.

Meanwhile, across the road, the former home of the late guitarist Rory Gallagher’s mother, Greenbanks, is now clear of planning and should be ready to launch as another site offering.

Developer John Cotter has been given permission for four large properties on the cleared estuarine site. It follows an earlier application for a larger townhouse scheme that saw considerable local opposition.

In the same way, Lane Builders is going through a second round of planning for the listed Ballinlough House, the former Lovett’s Restaurant, and is now before An Bord Pleanála with an amended scheme.

This project includes apartments and duplexes on the site and plans to renovate and extend Ballinlough House.