Swan around Cork's Lough as key lifestyle location

BellaVista on Hartland's Road is a short waddle to the water's edge: UCC and hospital employers are close-by too

Dormer home BellaVista is at the Glasheen Road end of Hartland's Road, with the nature reserve The Lough at the other end. Estate agent Michael McKenna guides from €495,000

Hartland's Road, the Lough, Cork City
€495,000
Size:	124 sq m (1,325 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	2
BER	E2

CORK’s wonderful wildlife amenity The Lough, home to coarse fish and elegant swans, as well as to ice skaters in very hard winters, is but a short, direct line waddle down the road from BellaVista — a suburban home that will itself be quite the catch too.

Just listed this week with agent Michael McKenna, who had first viewings of the private home this Thursday, BellaVista is a detached, well-cared for dormer bungalow on Hartland’s Road, just off the city end start of the Glasheen Road.

A family of swans take flight from the Lough in Cork city. Picture Chani Anderson

Near Denroches Cross, and a busy Centra too, Hartland’s Road runs in a straight line down to The Lough, with a mix of houses, little and a bit larger, on either side, in short terraces, pairs of semi-ds (both single and two storey), along with some detacheds, of which BellaVista is one.

It’s priced at €495,000 by Mr McKenna, who says a new owner can just walk in and make themselves at home, and he notes its proximity to UCC, the Bon Secours, and it’s within an easy walk too of the city centre.

But, a key location marker also is the proximity to The Lough, a wildlife reserve since the 1880s with its c 1.1km walk around the corralled waterway and its nesting island, home to many species of birds, including swans, geese, ducks, moorhen, and more seasonal arrivals, as well as having carp, rudd, tench, and perch lurking, and ducking and diving, under the dark surface.

It’s an outdoor, healthy amenity too for humans with exercise equipment installed by the water close to where Hartlands Road meets The Lough, with pedestrian access only at this end: “all amenities are close-by,” notes Mr McKenna.

Rear of BellaVista

He expects trader down interest, as well as other buyer profiles such as employees at UCC and hospitals, and the Price Register shows a mix of previous sales on the cul de sac road.

There’s been a dozen sales listed on Hartland Road since 2011, with the top price of a recorded €380,000 back in 2018 for one called Lough Villas, while the house right next door to BellaVista changed hands just last year.

No 6 Hartland Road appeared on these pages a year ago, needing full renovation and qualifying for Vacant Property grants, with a guide price of €295,000.

A semi-detached bungalow, No 6 sold in the end for €352,000, and will swallow more cash before hitting its stride. By contrasts, BellaVista may only require discretionary spends if next owners so wish.

Dormer bedroom

Now an executor sale after years in family ownership, it’s got 124 sq meters or over 1,300 sq ft inside, with a rear extension, has two ground floor bedrooms on the right of the hall, one with bay window and en suite bathroom, and a stairs also on the right leads to a dormer style bedroom, bed No 3, with windows on two sides: there’s a bathroom up here too.

Warm feel

It also has two reception rooms, to the left of the hall, each with antiques style fireplaces, and the front room also has a bay window, dressed with plantation style shutters.

Further back is the kitchen, with a good range of pine units, plus dining area, and there’s also a laundry/utility beyond, and off behind is a sunny cobbled/brick patio, with south east aspect, as well as a long secure and mature garden, with storage shed, with an old stone wall at the back boundary.

Private garden

In front there’s off-street parking on a brick paved drive. It faces west at the front, whilst glimpsed from the entrance by Glasheen Road is the completed development of 43 units, Hartlands Square, crisply designed and done by City Hall under Rebuilding Ireland initiatives, replacing an old motor repairs garage site in the apex between Glasheen Road and Magazine Road, facing the grounds of Hayfield Manor over a high wall to the north.

VERDICT: BellaVista, bella location.