HOUSE OF THE WEEK

Tidy up, extend, build on top — or knock, and start again? All those options are solidly to hand at the well-built Kilrohan, a hideaway on a lovely Model Farm Road site just west of Cork city’s suburbs.

There’s money, to be sure, chasing the best stock and sites in this location, with the Price Register showing sales as high as €975,0000, €1.35m and €1.5m paid in the last three years for the road’s best homes, most of them sold and bought by medics.

Just behind Kilrohan is/was Rockrohan Court, where an original 1960s pavilion-type single-storey 3,000 sq ft architect-designed home on over two acres has now been demolished, and is being replaced by a very tall, contemporary new-build — a replacement architectural statement for a new, more energy-efficient era. It’s got the Wow! factor, aided and abetted by the fact that two-acre house/site was bought for almost €1.4m.

In a different league now, and into the future, is Kilrohan, on a one-third of an acre mature plot and carrying a €400,000 price tag with Sheila O’Flynn and Johnny O’Flynn of Sherry FitzGerald.

Single storey, and architect-designed around 30 years ago, it has quirks, but also huge character, and was built as a trading-down home for its owner who’d lived in the second-last main Rockrohan Court.

Quite American in its internal style and finishes, this ‘lodge’ has a large, sunken main drawing room with open fireplace in a marble-finished wall, there’s a 15’ by 15’ sun room off one direction and a galley-kitchen to the other, with limed oak units and white Corian tops to the other side.

It’s also got two decent bedrooms, one with walk-through dressing room/storage, and behind is an en suite with large shower. The main bathroom has good fittings — and gold taps, very much the high end of the spec for the day.

It’s all very bright, thanks in the main to full length windows in the living room, while the conservatory/sun room’s going to warm up with the slightest hint of the sun’s rays: already, seedlings for summer plants are bursting into life thanks to the ambient heat here.

The garden’s a really good size too and will take any amount of extra planting, but already has good bones, and some very mature trees around the perimeter, and back into Rockrohan Court acres of grounds too allow for visual and horticultural interest, and for screening for privacy for all parties. The landscaping includes a small reflecting pond with lilies, palms, tree ferns and beech and laurel hedges.

Kilrohan’s real value lies in the grounds and location just west of Inchigaggin Lane. While traders down might like it as it is, it’s got more scope going for it, especially with pent-up demand for sites for up-market one-offs - instanced by the very active bidding Sherry FitzGerald already have across the city at Blackrock Road, where a similar-sized site (featured here two weeks ago) is under offer in the mid €400,000s, and seeking €500k.

VERDICT: Given the proximity of the CUH and Bons, and the privacy here, expect medics to be to the fore in the bidding — even if it’s not going to be the grandest house on the grounds.