Quality period home with room available for developments at €575,000

Fermoy, Cork, €575,000

Size:Land:Bedrooms:Bathrooms:BER:

Tommy Barker on a superb fermoy period home with zoned land.

The chance to live in a period home of quality, on four-and-a-half acres off the Dublin Road within Fermoy town (enough to graze a family pony) and within a shopping trolley push of the local Aldi, has come to market.

Guided at €575,000 by local estate agent Michael Barry of Dick Barry & Sons is the Victorian era Carrigeen House, privately set, off a long approach avenue from the Dublin Road.

It was originally constructed in the mid- to late-1800s by a local family, the O’Mahoneys, where a father who was a builder gave it to his daughter, as a wedding present.

It was sold on to a new family of owners in 1951, the Hydes, and the current owner Bernard Hyde bought it from his father in 1979; he, and his since-deceased wife Margaret, “completely renovated and restored it over the next several years, and also did a lot of work on the area immediately around the house and the avenue,” notes Michael Barry.

The comfortable, two-storey c 2,260 sq ft four-bed home has double height canted bay windows, red brick chimneys, attractive fireplaces and is described by the agent as charming.

Three of the four-and-a-half acres are zoned residential, and there are housing developments on two sides, one from the mid-1900s, the other more recent. So, there may be some developer interest, but at present Mr Barry believes it will most likely be bought as a good quality private residence, with, quite literally acres of town grounds, and mature planting, including a large monkey puzzle tree.

The long approach avenue is quite slender, and thus may rule out a development of scale, but there are clear options for one or two sites within the overall 4.5 acres, without impinging on the main house, according to Mr Barry.

There’s a porch entrance, hall, kitchen/dining with solid fuel stove, two reception rooms with good fireplaces and corniced ceilings, sun room, walk-in pantry, and utility with guest WC, all at ground level.

Above are a main bathroom with bath, along with four bedrooms, one with a bay window, and several have fireplaces and/or wash basins.

Externally, it has a rough cast dash finish, casement windows and very well-kept and wholly private grounds, with development scope, making it “a rare opportunity to buy a beautiful family home within walking distance of Fermoy town centre,” says the selling agent.

Meanwhile, also in Fermoy but on the Blackwater river-set town’s southern flanks, with considerable (re)development scope is the town’s Presentation Convent, a 10,000 sq ft Italianate ashlar stone-built former private home on 6.8 acres.

Dating to the early-1800s, it has just gone to market this month with agent John Hodnett of Hodnett Forde, with a €850,000 price guide quoted.

VERDICT:

Options with each of these Fermoy town offers, due to land.