House of the week

PICKING out the best feature of No 1 Arvalee is quite a task. There’s a choice of what marketeers like to call USPs, or Unique Selling Points.

Certainly, towards the top of any list must be the setting: it’s just one of four large, one-off houses in an exceptionally private and landscaped walled setting, on the edge of Douglas, Cork, in Frankfield.

Is the eye-catcher then the stand-out staircase, a real craftworker’s masterpiece, in solid oak rising through the very heart of this three-storey home, linking its big living quarters with up to six or even seven bedrooms (four en suites) overhead?