Price cut at Claydon Hall

THERE’S loads to see, and lots of space to play around with, at Claydon Hall, a seven-bedroomed family home in a rural setting just north of Cork city.

Built in the early 2000s, and with every room tweaked or added to, it is up for sale and now has a reduced asking price as the down-sizing owners are keen to build, but to do it all over again on a more modest scale.

A mother and daughter have adjoining houses here at Templemichael, White’s Cross, and with the younger family member’s own home just now selling via Mark Hornibrook of Redfords, the same agent has dropped the price on the bigger home to expedite this second, next-door sale. Then, both family members want to build anew. Asking price now for the fully-decked out house Claydon Hall and its half acre site is €595,000, down from an earlier hope of €650,000.

Mr Hornibrook reckons there’s about 3,500 sq ft of space here, thanks to an attic conversion, which provides two bedrooms, a bathroom and a games room.

Five of the seven bedrooms have en suite bathrooms and the main family bathroom has a classic roll top cast iron bath, on a raised tiled plinth.

Starting at ground level, the size of the place becomes apparent once past the double height hall and hardwood stairs: the sitting room alone is 29’ by 14’ with a large black cast iron fireplace and ceiling cornicing.

There’s an even larger kitchen/living/dining room, with a step up to the kitchen/dining space, with white tiled floor, maple units, Belfast sink, and cheery red Stanley range cooker. There’s church-style arched side windows, and an arch to the hall, while there’s a pair of marbled pillars or columns flanking the double doors to the 11’ by 10’ sun room, which overlooks the gardens and a Japanese-style bridge in timber, curving over a feature pond. Other ground floor rooms include a good utility, and play room/den, with bathroom alongside.

The gardens, behind electric access gates, run to about half an acre, with the country views over the hedged perimeter from the upper floors, and the grounds are well-landscaped and shrubbed, with lawns, tarmac drive, and that adjacent pond.