House of the week

JOURNEY’S End towers above its setting in more ways than one — the extra-sized family home on a large plot is on the very uppermost site in Towering Heights, Tower village close to Blarney.

Built 10 years ago, the distinctive, splay-shaped home is a high-end market arrival, with some huge rooms and a smashing south-facing site, and comes up for sale with locally-living estate agent Robert Harkin of Harkin & Associates, guiding €649,000 and he says there’s nothing of this property’s calibre available in the area right now.

Journey’s End is wide, and deep, and its varied roof profiles help camoflague just how big a house this place really is; its site area of three-quarters of an acre is more than a suitable match for it, ringed immediately to the east and north by the russet woodland of the Blarney Estate.

It’s glorious, elevated, perhaps about 400 feet above sea level, with views across the valley over Tower village, towards the mound of Garrvagh Hill, higher itself than Towering Heights.

This was an early scheme of services sites for less than two dozen one-off houses, dating back probably to 1990s. Journey’s End was built a decade of so ago on the highest, and probably the largest site, one that the local farmer had kept back for a son who ended up buying a farm elsewhere instead.

It’s a big, big house with locally-sourced Cloghroe stone outside, and subtle changes of levels inside with a couple of very large rooms to the front for the views.

The best formal room is about 24’ by 19’, with high ceilings and a white marble open fireplace, a real stand-out feature space.

Flooring in much of the ground level (with a few stepped up and stepped down areas) is in very high quality solid maple, and rooms include a a family TV room, large kitchen/dining room with quality pine units (paint would transform them if you want a more neutral look) and there’s a very large sun room, warm and with elevated and distant views. The lower level also includes a games room or optional en suite fifth bedroom, a decent study, utility and pantry.

The staircase is in the very heart or central core of the house, and could be suitably lifted by a bit of dramatic lighting, and off the landing are ranged four bedrooms, two of which are en suite, and the 30’ by 13’ master bedroom also has a sizeable walk-in robe /dressing space tucked into a roof space.

That roof is expansive and multi-faceted, and it was while the house was being built that the possibility of annexing some extra space (on top of the considerable 3,500 sq ft that’s counted) was seized on. There’s an extra dormer room, almost hidden away, with a slightly quirky shape and super-bright, thanks to four Veluxes set in the ceilings. It’s suitable for lots of uses — just ask a child, they’ll have no bother deciding what to do with it, and how best to colonise it.

Outside, the site is another massive play area, with good gardens, and just the right amount of landscaping not to compete with the glories of the woodland boundaries. There’s a detached garage, an elevated playhouse, lawn section fenced off for safe-keeping of dogs and pets, and about 600 sq ft of well-kept decking to the back and west of the rangy house for outdoor dining and BBQs.

Location: Tower, Cork

Price: €649,000

Size: 327 sq m (3,500 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 4/5

BER rating: Pending

Broadband: Yes

Best asset: Commanding site and views

VERDICT: Well-built, spacious, on a commanding site with a few minutes walk of Tower’s amenities, Journey’s End will hold the busiest of families in comfort.