House of the week: Rochestown Estuary - €995,000
- 278 sq m (2,992 sq ft)
- 5
- 4
- C2
- Wade in
It’s a rare bird, to be sure — a Rochestown Road home in Cork, modern, detached, on half an acre or more of grounds, along with waterfrontage, and a lofted boathouse with overhead apartment.
Up for sale with a price tag just shy of €1m, guided as it is by Lisney estate agent Cian O’Donoghue at €995,000, this five-bed quality home is called Whimbrel, after a near,
migratory neighbour, a wader bird similar to a curlew, and whose whistle and trilling call can often be heard from this home, which has adopted its name.
Other avian and feathered passers-by who drop in
include Canadian Geese, Little Egrets and Moorhens, and the wild fowl mix might be familiar to those walking, or cycling, the very popular waterside amenity line from Rochestown to Passage West, along the old, former rail line skirting the tidal and estuarine reaches of Cork’s inner harbour.
This is a chance, though, to nest at this waterside spot, just on the Rochestown side of Hop Island, where there’s a very popular horse riding centre.
Whimbrel is probably one of the newer arrivals to touch down on this shoreline section, built in 2001, and it’s a quirky enough one-off, with interior woodworking flourishes, in elaborately crafted internal doors, in stair newels, and in the impressive, very tall, Gothic-style arched feature window, crafted in timber in the main living room, done by the talented ‘man of the house’ himself.
Its gothic edge is perhaps appropriate, as Whimbrel’s whole ‘look’ seems to have been inspired by ornamental gothic-style gate lodges, only writ large and taller than any cottage in this case, with additional touches thanks to high roof pitches, barges and slate-hung upper gables.
Internally, there’s an irregular layout, with main rooms positioned to maximise the views to the estuary and towards Harty’s Quay in Rochestown, to the north west, and over the water to Jacob’s Island by Mahon Point, with ‘bookending’ apartments developed there on either side, back in the early 2000s, and linked by the old steel rail bridge.
Whimbrel’s own setting is almost backwater, one of a mere handful of private homes in a row before Hop Island, with water frontage.
It’s extremely tidal, of course, draining to mud flats at lower tides, which is when the waders come into play and out to feed, so there’s pretty much always something of interest to observe, in the near and far distance.
Even though the property mix includes a detached boathouse, with an overhead well laid-out open plan apartment
adding about 1,180 sq ft more to the mix over its two levels, it probably isn’t the sort of place you’d be launching a sizeable boat from, given the low draft, most likely a dinghy, or perhaps a smaller RIB, and that’s at the highest tides: come back late on a falling tide, and you’ll be stranded for a few hours.
Lisney’s Cian O’Donoghue says the boathouse has lots of uses for non-seafarers, such as a workshop, art studio, or gym, and its ground level includes a shower room. Overhead is a kitchen/living room, with wood floor, and part wall divide screening off the sleeping quarters: it’s ideal, he suggests, for an au pair, or occasional guests, or, perhaps, stroppy teenagers.
Back in the main house — a rare proposition, says O’Donoghue — the design was to optimise the light and views available, in an adaptable home, so that one of its five bedrooms is downstairs, and set up as a part en suite/part guest WC, while upstairs, off the splayed landing, are four
bedrooms, of which two are en suite, plus there’s a main family bathroom, so lots of plumbing and washing facilities to go around too.
Also at ground level are a kitchen/dining room, triple aspect with wood units, and access to utility with, unusually, secondary access to the front of the house, by the front door. Also off the kitchen is a living room with corner window and stove, and separately there’s a further family room/sitting room, carpeted, with wide bay window, part-elevated
ceilings, second stove and that feature lofty, church-like bespoke window, with wide estuary and tall, big skies, for
bird-watchers and twitchers to make their hide.
Fully fledged one-off.
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