One look at the pool room will set the pulses racing at this former Cobh Fever hospital

A South African couple know how to barbeque in style, writes Catherine Shanahan

Property

Cuskinny, Co Cork
€825,000
Size	298 sq m (3207sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	3
BER	Pending

DESPITE massive medical advances in the last century, it seems quarantining was a more straightforward affair in bygone days, when plagues and pandemics were rampant.

A very sensible system, the forerunner of modern public health measures, with unnerving parallels to our current reality, was in operation in Cork Harbour, to prevent the spread of illness to the city.

It involved removing feverish sailors from ships bound for the city while they passed through Cuskinny Bay and transferring them by horse and cart to the nearby “interception” hospital.

Unlike present times, there was no public outcry at the notion of isolating overseas travellers, and that small Cobh hospital played a quiet but vital role in combatting the spread of disease.

It’s fitting then that it has not been forgotten. It’s still known locally as the Old Fever Hospital, although its role in healthcare ended about three quarters of a century ago.

The property was sold in 1954 to former head nurse, Lillian O’Connor, and was later separated into two lots: A two-thirds of an acre plot with the former hospital, now a family home, known as Marian House, and a one-third of an acre plot on which the lodge stands, with separate ownership.

Marian House Cobh

Marian House was purchased in 1995 by the South African van der Meer family, and they set about turning into a gorgeously useable family home. At its heart is a poolroom which houses a braai, the South African version of a BBQ oven, and despite its impressive size (the oven was hauled all the way from South Africa), it’s not the most eye-catching feature in this stunning room.

That honour goes to the huge lantern roof, an architectural showpiece that channels light from all directions, creating a fantastically bright and airy space, as close as it gets to being outdoors while inside.

The runner-up showstoppers in the braai room are an indoor jet-swim pool and separate jacuzzi, with fabulous views of the magnificent gardens, tended to largely by Shirley van der Meer, and accessed via double doors onto a patio. An invitation to the braai at Marian House looks like the dream gig of the summer season and, coming from a country where barbequing is an artform (Desmond Tutu said the braai is in South Africa’s DNA), the van der Meers are never slow to stoke up the coals.

“The great thing about the braai is that we can invite people over for a barbecue any time, even on a rainy day,” says Dr Mike van der Meer.

“We say ‘come for a barbecue’, and they said 'it’s raining,' and we say “we know, come over anyway'.” 

What’s more, there’s a log stove in the pool room in case the temperature dips, with logs housed in an adjoining outdoor alcove, sheltered from the inevitable rain by a perspex roof.

The extensively-glazed room that constitutes the braai is the youngest wing of Marian House. It was added by the van der Meers in 2005/2006.  The house itself dates back to the late 1800s.

There’s no hint of a former infirmary in the current set-up at Marian House other than a small “boiler room” nameplate on the door of what is now a cinema/living room, which Mike put up to commemorate its history. It was here that the hospital’s boiler was located, and it was housed separate to the main house. When the van der Meers bought the property, they followed up the purchase with a series of renovations, including incorporating the former boiler room and a nurse’s quarters back into the main house. 

They built on a corridor beyond the back hall which overlooks a west-facing courtyard on one side — it's gorgeous in the evening sunshine — and leads on to a fine big bedroom. And, on the other side, a generous bathroom and the “boiler room”, now used to screen movies and wired for surround sound, with a kitchenette to the rear. This room in turn leads to that fabulous 80 sq m braai recreational space.

The previously exterior wall of the boiler room, which now forms an internal corridor wall, is warm yellow brick and was built from material discarded on the quays in Cobh by ships that had used it as ballast, but had no further use for it after they loaded up with goods for their onward journey, says Mike. 

Johanna Murphy, who is selling Marian House on behalf of the van der Meers and guiding at €825,000, says the 298 sq m property was “completely and sensitively renovated”.

An early van der Meer addition was the front-of-house conservatory, which runs in the form of a glazed corridor from the entrance porch to the far end of the house, culminating in an octagonal-shaped sunroom where Mike has installed a home office, but still with plenty of space for a stove and sofa. Through the rear window of the octagon is a rose garden, to the side of the courtyard. 

Two double bedrooms open via French doors onto the glazed corridor which in turn opens on to the gardens. Both bedrooms have large separate bathrooms and the main bedroom has a dressing room.

Back in the hallway, there’s great space under the graceful staircase, used for coal storage in bygone days, but now lined with bookshelves.

At the top of the stairs is a legitimate challenger for best room in the house: Like the braai room, it’s an exceptional space, with vaulted ceiling and beautiful old beams, and views out towards Cuskinny Bay. 

Mike says it was once the hospital ward, which explains its very generous proportions — a baby grand piano sits in among half a dozen armchairs, a 6ft dining table, a large marble fireplace and various cabinets, yet the room is in no way overrun with furniture. It’s another light-filled space, entered via double-doors, with three turn and tilt double-glazed windows on either side.

The views are magnificent both from this room and the adjoining cherrywood kitchen, making sense of the decision to put the main living accommodation upstairs — although new owners might decide to repurpose the layout, especially if a big kitchen is on the wishlist.

This could be done in the downstairs cinema room, where a kitchenette is already in place.

New owners may also decide to repurpose the 44 sq m internal double garage which Mike has kitted out with workbenches and built-in cupboards. It’s an impressive storage space and used by the current owners to park their cars (a South African habit of parking indoors, says Ms Murphy, who herself has South African/Cobh roots). However, she believes it could equally be converted into a home office or additional accommodation space.

“There’s so much space inside and outside Marian House that it could be used to run a business while living here — pottery workshops, ceramics, a cookery school.” 

Moreover, plans have been prepared for “double-storeying” the garage, she says. The house is not listed, so changes can be made, Outside, the gardens fan over three levels and are walled on three sides, while a stream forms a natural boundary on the fourth side.  There is, literally, a babbling brook at the end of the garden. The house is reached via a long drive over which the owners have a right of way. 

There’s a terrific selection of trees and shrubs, including apple, pear, and fig trees. Green-fingered Shirley can grow just about anything, even gem squash, a South African staple, not unlike pumpkin. Mike says the garden is planted so that something is always in season. She even managed to snaffle some creeper from a house in Italy’s Lake Maggiore, and it’s now an evergreen presence around the pool room extension.

The gardens are a haven for bees thanks to plenty of flowers attractive to pollinators. Wildlife such as red squirrels and owls are regularly spotted, and birdsong is constant.

The house sits uphill from Cuskinny Marsh, a wildlife sanctuary that has starred in the National Dawn Chorus Day broadcasts, presented from the nature reserve on special editions of Mooney Goes Wild on RTÉ Radio 1.

“They even put microphones in the swamp,” says Mike.

“The dawn chorus is literally at the bottom of the road. It starts about 4am and it just blows your mind,” he says. 

The views from the front lawn are of fields tilled in uniform rows out towards the bay, where braver souls are already taking daily dips off nearby Cuskinny Beach, a picturesque sheltered spot ideal for swimming and kayaking and to build up an appetite before heading in for that braai.

As Ms Murphy says, Marian House is “a big, comfortable home, a house that works, an ideal family home, great to run a business from, with plenty of garden and patio space, oozing history and charm and utterly tranquil”.

The orientation is south, so it enjoys the sun all day. 

VERDICT: Marian House, in an idyllic setting, has an easy relationship between indoors and out and, despite some luxury extras that add to the quality of lifestyle, it's pleasantly down to earth.