Looking for a soulmate? Try Glanmire's companionable Anam Cara at €595,000

Tommy Barker finds creature comforts at 'Anamcara' (Soulmate) which is set in the Castlejane sector of Cork's Glanmire

Hand of friendship: five fingerlike dormers at Anamcara or, Anam Cara, at  Castlejane Glanmire which is guided at €595,000 by Lisney's Trish Stokes

Glanmire, Cork
€595,000
Size	271 sq m (2,906 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	5
BER	B2

CARRYING the heart-warming named Anamcara, or Anam Cara meaning Soul Friend or Soulmate, this Cork home fresh to market looks to be a warm-hearted property too, evidenced by a B2 BER, high insulation standards, and good creature comforts.

Set in the Castlejane sector of Glanmire, in a cul-de-sac among a number of older one-offs, this Anamcara is a broad dormer home just shy of 3,000 sq ft, with featured stone-faced lofty entry point/hall, built on a site of almost 0.4 of an acre back in 2009.

Where the living is... cozy.

It was done at the time with an eye to cozy living, with an enhanced level of insulation done at the build stage, with oil-fired central heating and its very decent amount of internal space allows it a great mix of living rooms, and five bedrooms, all of them en suite, notes estate agent Trish Stokes of Lisney.

Her vendors are trading down after building it 12 years ago, and it’s a certainty the next occupants will be trading up.

'Anamcara', Castlejane, Glanmire, Co Cork, on offer with Lisney for a price in the region of €595,000.

Ms. Stokes guides at €595,000, and says there’s a very good floor layout, with two of its bedrooms at ground floor level, so families who don’t need all five have the choice of using some as a home office/den; most likely it could be the one which has its en suite (with shower over bath) doubling up in a Jack and Jill sort of arrangement, with two doors, also serving as a ground floor guest WC: it’s an effective use of facilities in the main, once those of modest dispositions remember to lock two doors and not just one when nature calls.

Master bedroom at Anamcara

The master suite meanwhile is up on the first floor, with a shower en suite and large walk-in robes/dressing room behind, and is one of two bedrooms with two dormer windows to the front, in an en suite.

Internal finishes and décor tend toward the traditional rather than contemporary.

A very good balance for the quantum of bedrooms/bathrooms is the mix of reception rooms, and a feature of the layout is the way one front reception room links to the hall via an arch, and again behind an arch separates or links a good-sized dining room: it’s sort of an early approach to the later trend for open plan living.

There are two reception rooms, the smaller on the left (it’s about 12' by 12’) thru’ the arch continues the run of solid oak flooring that’s in the hall, and while there’s a marble fireplace, it’s just a visual feature, as there’s no chimney for it.

Another living room view

Off to the right, meanwhile, is the larger living room, about 16’ by 16’, with double doors to the dining room and a single door to the hall: this rooms also has a fireplace, but it’s a functioning open one in this case, with a chimney of the gable wall.

Lisney’s Trish Stokes says that “there was much thought went in at the design stage of this home catering, for open plan spaces where it was felt of benefit and combining that with the intimacy of individual reception rooms,” and she says the setting too is quiet in its Castlejane niche, with all homes here is this particular setting individual, within a walk of all amenities, schools etc.

Overall condition is very good, with internal finishes and décor tending toward the traditional rather than contemporary, and the c 0.4 acre of grounds Anamcara stands on it are enclosed in the main, with low-maintenance steel fencing to the sides with an old stone wall at the back boundary, with good off-street parking.

Rear patio view 

The Price Register shows over 90 Glanmire sales with a Castlejane address, with just three over the €500,000 mark, No 7 the Avenue Castlejane Woods at €520,000 in 2017; a property called Old World fetched €540,000 in ’18, and the highest price was the €834,000 paid for Greenawn in 2011, and that was for a 3,600 sq ft home which had a price hope of as much as €1.5m back in 2006 according to Irish Examiner files.

The Register shows 67 sales with a broader Glanmire address in excess of €500,000 in the past decade and estate agent Trish Stokes observes that “Glanmire has become a destination for all family make-ups, from first-time buyers to those trading up and wanting to stay in the area. Anamcara offers a family home capable of catering to all of those needs.

VERDICT: As good as new, and sizeable to boot.