Take a view on Cork's €650k Lee View Montenotte home

Neighbouring hotel probably  spent over this home's €650,000 asking price on its gardens

Garden envy? For sure! Montenotte Hotel grounds might inspire the green-fingered to try  something similar, but on a  bit more modest scale, at the nearby 13 Lee View, Montenotte, for sale with Savills

Montenotte, Cork City
€650,000
Size	166sq m (1,787 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	D2

ANYONE looking for inspiration for the garden at 13 Lee View in Cork need do little more than go 400 metres down the hill to the Montenotte Hotel, to see how to do things on a grandly ambitious, big dreaming scale. 

The acre of tiered gardens there, and the big swathe of terraces overlooking them, are just a stand-out recent city development to stir any Corkonian’s heart.

Cork city and docks views over the garden at 13 Lee View Montenotte

However, being realistic, it’s likely as much money was poured by Montenotte hotelier Frankie Whelehan into his four-star boutique hotel’s grounds as the Georgian era No 13 Lee View Montenotte will cost to buy: it’s priced at €650,000, by agent Lawrence Sweeny, of Savills Cork.

No 13, a semi-detached three-storey four-bed home of 1,787 sq ft, is a modernised,  original 1830s home, with bedrooms on its top and lowest levels.

13 Lee View Montenotte

It  has south-facing gardens, and most of the rooms too have views to the south overlooking Cork’s south docks, the Marina and back, west, towards the city where new development ratcheting up can be glimpsed either side of the River Lee’s reuniting twin channels by the Port of Cork site.

The address ‘does exactly what it says on the tin,” with the Lee threading through the  vista beneath this elevated perch. The terrace of paired homes  bears the same name as the original 19th century Lee View House, which became an hotel in the mid 1880s. Lee View House (hotel) subsequently became the Country Club, and is now, after many changes, the afore-mentioned and top notch Montenotte Hotel and pleasure gardens.

Quite surprisingly, the private home No 13 Lee View is not a protected structure and, as surprisingly, it gets a D2 BER, not bad for a property that’s 190 year of age.

Mr Sweeney says it has been beautifully renovated in recent year, has gas central heating and pvc double glazing.

Living room at 13 Lee View

The Price Register shows seven sales in the past number of years over the €600,000 mark with a Montenotte address. Most are quite modern, eg  in The Demesne, and five are over €650,000, including the large period home St Brandons which made €1.425m back in 2011. Among the stronger sales since was the mid 1900s beauty Roscuil, on Beale’s Hill, making €845,000 last year.

Just inching towards a sale now too is the original Arbutus Lodge, a one-time hotel and fine dining restaurant which had Michelin and Egon Ronay garlands in its hey-day. Now on trimmed grounds,

Arbutus Lodge, Montenotte sale agreed, close to €1.35m asking price via Savills

 Arbutus Lodge  has gone ‘sale agreed’ with Savills, for close to its €1.35m guide. Meawnhile, 16 modern townhouses of 2,000-2,300 sq ft are being completed by MHomes in its grounds, at Arbutus Montenotte, with Lee views a calling card, and are priced from €610,000 to €720,000.

Savills’ Lawrence Sweeney describes No 13 Lee View’s Montenotte setting as “extremely convenient” adding “this fantastic family home represents an outstanding opportunity for those wishing to trade up and live in the heart of the city,” putting it at 750 metres from St Luke’s Cross (also currently undergoing a revival of well-heeled home-hunter interest) and 1.5kms uphill from the city centre.

VERDICT: A manageable-size Montenotte home with Lee views, indeed.