Rosewood: To the manor born of the west-ish Cork village

Tommy Barker looks at a comfortable and stylish home in the west-ish Cork village of Innishannon.

When the family who’ve lived very comfortably at 2 Rosewood Manor for the past ten years first saw it, they knew, right then, that they’d found the place they wanted to live.

The revelation came after three years of house hunting, so the relief at finally bedding down was added to by the convenience of buying a fully-formed, ready-to-go high-end home. They bought the niche scheme’s show-house: it’s still in show-house condition, testament to design and the materials used, while the exterior and interior design and overall look fits into the descriptive category of ‘timeless.’

A decade on, they are seeking to relocate, closer to older family members and say the quality of life at No 2 within the gated development Rosewood Manor has granted them has been immense, as well as serving as a gateway to West Cork and Kinsale, and easy commute to and from Cork city, and most especially because of the ease of access to Cork airport, as the dad of the house was a frequent flyer around Europe and the wider world for work reasons.

Now, the work flights load is lessening, the children are growing up, and the previous generation back in the city would probably appreciate having the wider clan more immediately on their suburban doorstep.

As No 2 comes to market, it’s the first resale at Innishannon’s Rosewood Manor, say the owners, so it’s most likely that many home hunters today will have no real idea of the high quality of this out-of-sight development.

Rosewood was to be a calling card of luxury, energy efficiency and quality workmanship for the Cork market, when initiated by Kerry-based company Brian Gallivan Developments, who’d previously done some fairly swanky one-off and niche development homes in Kenmare (including Oakwod Manor, where prices topped €1m), and in Killarney.

Gallivan Development also built the world-class apartment at The Retreats, at Kenmare’s Park Hotel for brothers John and Francis Brennan, and both Rosewood Manor and The Retreats were hit hard as they launched in ‘08/09, just when the economy and building sectors tanked, and in fact the market slide had already kicked and both builders and buyers were rattled at the time Rosewood Manor went on view.

Rosewood Manor had launched at prices reported from €950,000 to €1.15m, one of a handful of Cork development with new stock in excess of €1m at the time, built on large sites on the very private grounds of an older house and ruined castle, close to the earlier development of more modest-size detacheds, The Spires, always a strong seller in Innishannon.

The Price Register doesn’t date back far enough to record what the earlier sales went at, and the most recent Rosewood completions on record were at €498,000 and €516,000, back in 2016, and perhaps not all homes within had quite the same range of bells and whistles that went into the first builds, with the show-house No 2 most likely to have been the best endowed.

(Original developer Brian Gallivan and his crew have weathered the downturn by doing a fair share of work on one-off homes in Cork and Kerry, some well into the multi-million euro property value bracket for well heeled private clients.)

Design at Rosewood Manor, to a generous Victorian style template was by Barry and Lehane Architectural Ltd., and much of the delivery crew came to Cork from BGD’s base in Kerry to take on the Munster and Cork market: it included interior designers David and Sarah McGinty, who put the luxe look on No 2.

Ten years ago, we then wrote that the McGintys had gone for “lot of wallpaper on display to comfort those trying to ride out economic storms, downturns and meltdowns.

Kitchens are painted and all paint finishes are exemplary, craftsmanship the likes of which hasn’t been seen much during the heady days of the building boom.”

Features of the build and finishes included underfloor heating, concrete floors at ground and first floor levels, concrete base stairs, Heat Recovery Ventilation, a gas fireplace in the master bedroom, surround sound in several rooms, TV screens inset into walls (and even at the foot of a bath), draught-proof entrance lobbies for air-tightness (almost unimaginably quite a new concept just a decade ago), central vacuum, painted Rationel windows and doors with low e glass, and a host more extras.

The kitchen at ex-showhouse No 2 is by UK Nottingham-based makers Loxley Kitchens, but for those more familiar with the Loxley name from derring-do tales of Robin Hood, whether of not the wood used came from Sherwood Forest is not acknowledged.

What can’t be gainsayed is this painted kitchen’s quality and durability, with solid timber units topped with thick marble worktops, and surrounding a double ceramic sink, appliances are Miele, in the main, and a central island is timber topped, with open display shelving.

Everything runs as true now as it did when first installed, and the utility (with access to a south-facing back garden) has the same high level of units, and Miele laundry appliances included in the sale.

No 2 is just listed via estate agent Ann O’Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald in Cork city (and, an Innishannon resident), who guides at an even €700,000, and who observes that there’s probably nothing of this quality available at this sort of price level in and around the city.

Both she and the vendors at No 2 agree that the setting is very convenient to Cork’s Bishopstown and south ring – about 12 minutes’ commute, give or take, excluding the current roadwork and upgrade by the Viaduct/city Liberties. (Rosewood Manor’s setting on Church Hill in Innishannon means the village itself along the River Bandon and N71 can be bypassed and the hill accessed via a secondary road a kilometre on the Cork side of Innishannon.

No 2’s just by the entrance in Rosewood Manor, looking over a sloping green, and has mature trees on its site which preclude the arrival of these new-builds ten years ago, including a chestnut tree, just about ready to yield a crop of ‘conkers.’

There’s side gate access either side of the very wide, detached two-storey house, with its twin double height bay window, with trails of wisteria over a side gate to the west, as well as scented jasmine, while there’s a detached garage/store on the east sides, amid lawn and terraces and the front has off-road parking on a brick-paved drive for severla cars and even some indulgent motorbikes, when the Irish Examiner rolled in.

Within, there’s a porch entrance to a central hall, sharing the same limestone flooring finish with the hall, with a carpeted stairs (on concrete steps) with chunky painted balusters, oak trim and this central core, and landing, is wall-papered in a low-key floral print, girded by deep coved ceiling plasterwork.

It’s all ineffably calm, as much down to the decor as to the double glazing and site’s seclusion above Innishannon’s community-minded bustle, which has great sport facilities, including a floodlit walking track around the riverside GAA pitches, a range of shops, and even Rohu’s one-time garage is now a foodie destination, a mix of country market, home-fired pizzas, and top sandwiches/deli as a sort of local larder for one and all.

Back home? Left of the hall is a triple aspect area, embracing a living room, connecting with a dining section with side bay window, and kitchen, all seamless, with an open fireplace as an adjunct to the gas-fired underfloor heating, ticking away nicely under impressively solid oak floorboards.

Off to a far, back corner, is a carpeted family living room, double aspect with Silestone fireplace, rear garden access with double doors, and again has corniced ceilings, integrated south speakers and HRV air circulation, and the BER’s a B2.

Making a floor plan like No 2’s adaptable for life-long occupancy, is the presence on the ground floor of an optional bedroom, right next to an extremely well decked out ground floor guest WC.

It’s perfect for guests, older/independent children, for those with (dis)ability issues and for the pre- and post-op years when hips, knees and other joins make stairs a bit of a chore.

If next owners don’t need/want a ground floor bedroom, a simple change of furniture makes it an office, den, or games room, while in the current owners’ set up, they use one of the four first floor bedrooms as an office: it’s the room midships to the front, with its two abbey-style rounded windows, and for next owners, perhaps it might be a nursery?

This upper level’s three other bedrooms are all doubles, and all three have en-suite bathrooms. Two have bay windows, across the front facade, and the sanctuary-like master suite also has a walk-in dressing room/wardrobe, gas fireplace and wall mounted TV.

Tiling in all the bathrooms (no need for a ‘main’ family bathroom given all the en-suites and shower downstairs in the loo) is individual, yet not likely to date, yet further evidence as the selling agents Sherry FitzGerald say of a product “which has stood the test of time.”

SF’s Ann O’Mahony also singles out the more intangibles, such as room proportions and ceiling heights, and simple ‘heft’ to the touch, whether that’s things coming to hand and in daily use, or the feel of the floors, a sort of grounded weightiness.

Back outside, the design is Victorian-inspired with bay windows, slate roofs, high apex pitches with finials.

Rosewood Manor homes span just a handful of house types and sizes, all over 2,000 sq ft, and at 2,580 sq No 2 is the largest of the types too.

Nine house are built, and plans for smaller ones (site numbers indicated over 15 to be built in all) appear to be shelved in favour of just a handful more of equal size to those already built and well bedded down to complete what’s already a very well kept and maintained off-radar development, within a short rush of the airport.

VERDICT: No 2 delivered everything its builder/developer promised he’d do a decade ago: it’s still a calling card of quality, on a gateway to West Cork and the coast.

• Innishannon, Co Cork€700,000
• Size: 240sqm (2,580sqft)
• Derooms: 4/5
• Bathrooms 4
• Ber B2