A hidden home that’s on the edge of the city centre

THE detached Cork family home Kilbroney is a house of two halves, one part built in the 1920s, the other half grafted on less than a decade ago in a contemporary style.

Put them together and you get a privately-set family home with some great rooms, within a few minutes’ walk of the city centre.

Located in Marble Hall Park, off the start of the main Douglas and Ballinlough roads, Kilbroney’s tucked away at the cul-de-sac park’s eastern end, with its site bounded by the south-link junction with the Boreenmanna Rd. It’s surrounded by mature trees, but when they lose their leaves in winter, you get glimpses on this house’s unusual mono-pitch roof extension and its feature circular gable windows. (The fully-leafed trees are making it a bit dark right now, but do serve the purpose of filtering out some of the link road’s presence.)

That sometimes glimpsed contemporary section houses the 22’ by 15’ master bedroom, with its reverse-pitch roof and sliding doors to a railed triangle of balcony - it’s a lovely space.

Kilbroney has been refurbished inside and out, and that extension gives it its best rooms, with a quality dual-aspect kitchen having rear garden/yard access, with a secret garden hidden behind old hedging next to an old-fashioned and very large storage shed, crying out for an upgrade and perhaps a glasshouse section too.

There are two reception rooms, one with reclaimed parquet flooring, the other with double doors to the kitchen, plus there’s a utility and ground-floor shower room. Overhead, the family bathroom serving the four bedrooms has a jacuzzi bath, as the owners decided not to go the ensuite route.

Selling agent Ann O’Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald guides the super-convenient package at €385,000, and it comes on the back of several recent SF successful sales in Marble Hall Park.

VERDICT: One to cast an eye over.