This beautifully finished family home is among the best Rochestown has to offer
Built as a one-off within the Charlemont Heights development of bright, white rendered homes under terracotta-tiled roofs on the slopes of Coach Hill, Rochestown, on what was then a double site, No 19 is also one of the biggest of this rather elevated clutch.
No 19 was built over split levels and weighs in at an impressive 4,000 sq ft of high-end home, albeit in a low-slung looking design, modest almost at first glance.
Many of the full two-storey houses here first tipped the scales at 2,000 sq ft-plus, and they are the dozen or so on the development’s upper section, reached up steep drives, standing proud, in both meanings of the word.
Seven homes, on generally bigger sites on the lower section of Charlemont Heights, are a bit more bespoke, more hidden away with significant privacy too, thanks to the onward march of landscaping, and a few have added significant extensions down the years.
Now for sale for the first time, and guided at €850,000 by Sheila O’Flynn of Sherry FitzGerald, No 19 is the first house glimpsed on the right entering this salubrious outer-suburban cul de sac setting.
It’s utterly deceptive in terms of scale, is very well built and finished (its pitch pine stair balusters, newels and handrails were salvaged from the old garda station on Union Quay), and has several over-sized rooms making it ideal for vibrant family life and entertaining.
Plus, it’s on great grounds, sloping but superbly landscaped and planted by designer Brian Cross, including ponds on two levels with a mini-cascade, and has a sweep of views over the Douglas/Mahon estuary, to Jacob’s Island, Mahon Point’s night lights, and the hills east of Cork City, past glittering tides.
It’s a really good trading-up home, with quirks and added extras.
Set towards the top of its graded site, it’s entered past a well-executed brick arch and front door, at a sort of half level, next to a study/home office with fireplace.
There’s a short burst of steps down to the main living level, plus a lower/basement level down further, home to a 31’ by 17’ den/games room, shower room and a large garage/workshop which could be converted to gym and garden room.
The main/mid living level is home to a bright, central 32’ by 16’ kitchen dining room, flanked to the left by a comfortable and spacious lounge, 27’ by 19’ with fireplace, plus unusual feature triangular window bay with stained glass, and access to raised deck/garden viewing spot .
The other end of the house has a more casual 22’ by 13’ family room, furnished in a calm, pale blue Hamptons beach style, and this opens to another one of the three tiered deck areas (the mid one is currently home to a large hot tub.)
There’s hardly a small room in this house (the smallest is an incidental storage room, en route to the lower level/basement.)
Up on top, all five bedrooms are at least doubles in size, and the two end, en suite ones are largest, with the 19’ by 13’ master bedroom having a double aspect, fantastic garden views, and a dressing room plus private bathroom.
Overall condition and care is excellent on all three levels; it’s been finished to a corporate level too but with a firm family feel and there’s absolutely no shortage of space, or rooms, and although all the main rooms face north for the views and harbour vista, they seem to soak in the light.
The occupants are now downsizing, set to build alongside and beneath/to the side of No 19, as day one they bought a double plot, landscaping each to equal (Charlemont) heights and deliberately positioning each for privacy from one to the other.
Charlemont Heights was laid out in already mature grounds just south of the Georgian Charlemont House off Coach Hill, east of Clarkes Hill, and was developed by a Welsh man Len Dovey, who literally saw the woods from the trees, and slotted in such decent family homes on a greened-inRochestown hillside.
Subsequently each resident nurtured their sites and gardens, so there’s a communal leafy, landscaped feel, while No 19’s grounds by Brian Cross are among the very best, making a virtue of the gradient with several seating sections.
If there’s any downside for children, it’s that there isn’t a level playing pitch, so to speak.
Having hit the sale heights of €850,000 or so around 2006, Charlemont resales slowed here in the past few years of slump, going from one in 2010 at €675,000 to the €500,000s in 2011, and in 2013 the c 2,000 sq ft No 5 sold for €409,750.
With the market in much-recovered mode, the one-off and more bespoke No 19 also carries a similar sort of €200-plus per square foot price level, at €850,000, for every one of its top-end 4,000 square feet.
Has made the very most of its site and setting.
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