Make sure you see the wood from the trees, think ‘Rich’, no glitch

SORT of at the vanguard of a shift in thinking about building and the environment in its day, is this Richmond Wood home in Cork’s Glanmire.

Not only is it set in a quite exceptional woodland glade, its basic building material is also wood, in the form of timber framing.

Built around, 1990, this 1,900 sq ft dormer home with up to five bedrooms is in a prized, wooded section of the Richmond development just up the hill from Glanmire’s church and the Hazelwood shopping centres. There’s just about a dozen and a half individually built, one-offs set into the mature woodland — mostly beech trees — here, while the rest of popular Richmond houses are in more open, albeit landscaped terrain.

Here in The Wood, nature and the passage of time has provided the best of landscaping and a greened backdrop: money alone can’t buy it.

What €450,000 or so will buy, however, is this very adaptable family home in a setting where re-sales are truly a rare event, and all sites are long gone, says auctioneer Michael O’Donovan of Sherry FitzGerald’s Cork city offices.

No 55 was designed by its owners, who were relocating to Cork at the time from ‘up the country’ and who mixed a design flair — and environmental empathy — with the need to build in a sympathetic Irish dormer style, albeit with large windows in main reception room to draw in the light, and views.

The inside has an adaptable layout, with a central hall and landing, and rooms include a sitting room with open fireplace and back-boiler (the timber frame keeps it all very cosy, say the vendors), dining room, study, play room, kitchen with prep area and tiled floor, utility, and guest WC.

Four of the five bedrooms are doubles, the master bedroom has great rural and hill views, and is en suite with walk-in wardrobe, while the main family bathroom has been re-fitted.

According to Mr O’Donovan, the overall condition is good, but a new owner is going to put their own fresh imprint on it. A 15 minute commute to Cork city, and just on the left inside ‘The Wood’ section of Richmond, No 55 has oil heating, mains services, attic access via Stira, and gardens front and back with a fruiting apple tree offering viewing temptations.