Watch: Three-storey, six-bed home in Cork Harbour is guided at €530,000
If you are of a certain watchful type, it’s hard enough to keep up with the neighbours in places where the type, number, or even registration year of cars parked outside your front door might seem to matter.
At Radharc Na Mara, in Cork Harbour’s pretty Rostellan village, there’s another comparative layer entirely: the type or size of boat casually overwintering on your front drive.
A large, powerful sea-angling boat with cabin is parked to the side of No 4 Radharc na Mara as this well-anchored family home comes up for sale, while the house next door has a yacht on a trailer outside its front door.
They are not the only homes in this upmarket East Cork development on serviced sites to have boats as an interest and/or garden feature.
After all, with the waters of Cork Harbour just across the road and East Ferry’s wooded waterways beckoning to the north, why wouldn’t you want a boat, dinghy, or even a kayak at your beck and call?
However, for those of an even and equable disposition, and none too worried about keeping up appearances, what’s ‘parked’ outside No 8 may not matter a whit.
Here, what’s within is quite a bit more special, to be privately appreciated, running between and connecting over all three levels. Namely, this house’s staircase is both scene setter and scene shifter.
The owner of the large three-storey and six-bed home works in the steel industry, running Independent Engineering Services in East Cork, doing everything from cleanroom technology for the pharma sector to stainless steel balustrades for homes and gardens.
Here at No 8, he’s really pushed the boat out, metaphorically speaking, in the stainless steel finishes he’s brought to bear on this big, beefy build, inside and out.
His firm’s craftmanship is evident in the quality and individual and solidity of the stainless steel, glass, and American oak staircase serving its three levels.
Thanks to its exceptional detailing and finish, and the gentle geometric curves of the baluster steels, it’s almost a work of art, and would not be out of place in a private super-yacht or jet.
Just as you’d admire top carpentry, credit too must go to this stairs’ craftworker.
Selling agent for No 8 Radharc na Mara, James Colbert of Midleton, says the house’s vendors have said that for them to do a stairs to this level for a private client would probably cost about €35,000, and then stainless steel crops up again and again in several unexpected settings.
Joins where floor levels change, or where industrial grade-engineered wood flooring meets other surfaces, are trimmed in stainless steel, with a slight bevel in cases, for a cool touch.
Externally there’s a wall-set vertical water feature by the elevated sandstone-paved patio, with pumped water flowing down a sleek ripple of stainless steel.
All external lighting is powder coated for weather proofing, and the very top level of No 8’s three-tiered back garden has steel stakes in the ground, ready to take an observation deck for the best possible lofty views from the property.
(Some of the neighbours have already done decks up here in their own steeply rising gardens, with farmland above past mature beech trees, and one has a great treehouse for firing kids’ imaginations.)
Radharc Na Mara is in any case a very ‘family friendly’ sort of development, where kids seem to roam free in small clusters from house to house to garden, and that’s been a clincher in some recent resales.
Houses were built on this harbour-facing and west-facing hillside just above the village of Rostellan by individual site buyers, who had to build their detached homes to a certain size, scale, and finish, replete with part-stone facades.
James Colbert brought the 3,000 sq ft four-bed No 26 to market as recently as August at €490,000 when it featured extensively here, and it’s already ‘sale agreed’ to a buyer from the city/suburbs, making circa €510,000.
As a result, the six-bed No 8 is guided at €530,000 for its departing owners, who plan to build a contemporary one-off much closer to the water on a site they’ve already acquired.
The vendors tested the waters with Mr Colbert last year with an off-market launch and private viewings for No 8, and it got an initial offer of €490,000, before they decided to hold on another year.
“The quality has to be seen to be believed. There’s been almost a frighting amount spent on finishes and details. It definitely makes this the best finished house I’ve seen,” says the agent prior to public launch this weekend of the pristine harbour home.
Extra stand-out features include the 16Kw wood-chomping furnace of a stove in the family area off the kitchen, with a flue poking through a feature, chopped-stone chimney breast: it must be a case of over-kill, or over-kiln, as the billowing heat permeates the whole house when up and running at full throttle, even though it’s not plumbed into any rads.
The kitchen/dining/breakfast room behind has specially commissioned units made in lovely hues of ash timber, lots and lots of it.
In fact, the owners bought two ash trees, and had them cut, planked, dried, and made over to domestic service, bespoke in the best possible way.
Off to the back and side corner is a sunroom, with vaulted wood-clad ceilings and garden/patio access, and at ground level too is a utility, guest WC, and formal reception room, with marble fireplace.
The large central and tiled hall yields up views towards the next two levels via the custom-made staircase, with American oak handrails matching the open treads.
The two floors above have six bedrooms in all, two at attic level with Veluxes to the rear.
Three bedrooms have en suites, so there’s five bathrooms in all in this hard-working family home.
Also above spec is the level of insulation, doubled up effectively, with internal dry-lining and insulation in the cavity.
The floors on joists are insulated and have sound barriers, so it’s all quite hushed as well as immensely cosy for such a large home.
The grounds slope down in front to stone entrance pillars wired for as-yet electric gates, and the drive is a special tarmac with black chip and dusting which is intended to ensure no loss or fading of colour.
Behind, there’s swathes of Indian sandstone on the two levels of paving and garden steps, while the ground’s top tier has been levelled out enough for a trampoline, but those looking to kick a ball around will have their work cut out.
There’s a detached garage with roller door next to/behind the main dwelling to one side with a secure compound for dogs on the other side, with galvanised gates and timbers, a quality most others would covet for their homes.
Putting No 8 to market so hot on the heels of No 26, Midleton-based auctioneer James Colbert notes that the area from Saleens to Whitegate, including Aghada, East Ferry and Rostellan, is clearly finding favour with locals in East Cork as well as from Cork City (about 30 minutes away, depending on tunnel traffic) and from lifestyle relocaters from far afield.
Amenities include GAA and other clubs, and water activities from the nearby pier, such as rowing, kayaking, and sailing, plus tennis and pitch and putt, topped up by local cafes (including a chocolatier) and bars such as Rosies.
VERDICT: A petal in metal
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