An oasis close to the city for €990,000: This harbour home could be right up your lane

Sandy Lane in Monkstown Demesne shares a name with an exclusive Barbados resort.

Monkstown Demesne
€990,000
Size	TBC
Bedrooms	6
Bathrooms	6
BER	TBC

CARRYING the same name as one of the most exclusive resorts in the Caribbean - the Sandy Lane resort in Barbados beloved by billionaires and co-owned by  some of Ireland’s wealthiest men, including Dermot Desmond, JP McManus and John Magnier - is this c 20-year-old detached home, set in woodland, with water views, a golf course almost on its doorstep – and a price tag pitched close to millionaire buyer levels, or at least at those with home budgets close to the ‘Big Note.’

Five-bed villas in Barbados’ Sandy Lane seem to range from $2 million to over $7 million and, if money isn’t really any object, an eight-bed 16,500 sq ft home there on three acres in Barbadian style there can by bought for just under $12 million, sunny side up.

So, you might get some relief to know that Cork’s Sandy Lane, a big, detached five-home set deep in woods at Monkstown Castle Demesne, has come up for sale with a €990,000 AMV quoted by agent Ann O’Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald: it’s as close to the €1m price tag as makes little difference to those with this scale of cash to splash.

And, €1m+ property buyers haven’t been in too scarce supply in the past year, notwithstanding the impact of a certain global pandemic: in fact, some of the sales of upper end and coastal homes seem to have happened because of it, consolidating lifestyle choices for quite a few.

Mid-level with lightwell on first floor landing throwing light to the hall below

The Price Register shows at least 20 sales in or above the €1m sum in Cork city and county since June of 2020, and that’s excluding bulk sales of development and clusters and apartments, and there are a few more yet to come, wending their way through the last stages of legals and conveyancing.

The most recent recorded seven-figure transactions include an apartment at Lancaster Gate, Western Road, at an even €1m, and just above that sum, Trabeg House, on the main Douglas Road, set it in its own wooded suburban setting at €1.029m, sold by Sherry Fitz’s Ms O’Mahony after several years on an off the market.

Now, it’s market testing time for this Sandy Lane, a c 3,000 s ft five-bed home, on private grounds of 0.4 of an acre in the Demesne setting in the Cork harbour community of Monkstown, where a few dozen one-off homes have been built since the 1980s, pretty much all on large sites, in an old woodland estate surrounding Monkstown Castle (the castle itself is for sale as a part-renovated/completion project, with an €800,000 price tag via agents REA O’Donoghue Clarke).

Only a handful of homes here have harbour views, and that’s down to the sheer density and maturity of the trees, mostly deciduous, and those views pick up in winter, while others have golf course views. With some of the holes of the 100+year old Monkstown Golf Club passing through the demesne.

There are water views, or glimpses at least, to be had from Sandy Lane, which is down at the lower, village-end portion of the Demesne’s sites best noticed perhaps from the two first floor bedroom balconies, or even from the several Veluxes up on the next, second floor above, set into the steeply-pitched slate roof.

There’s a good mix of natural materials used inside and out in the construction of Sandy Lane, including that slate on the roof, stone in part of the façade and around the balcony up to the main bedrooms, in the feature curved stairwell’s exterior and along a side wall of the detached garage.

It’s a good-sized home, with good reception rooms, and six bedrooms, three per each of the two uppermost levels. Then, there’s a first-floor office-gym off a landing with a glass wall and this level features a glass balustrade gallery/opening dropping light to the hall below, with access to a big balcony from the studio/office/gym.

There’s a concrete slab floor between the two lower levels, great for cutting down on sound transfer and giving a real heft of solidity as well as reassurance on build quality, and, indeed, fire safety. Linking the lower two levels is a winding staircase, in polished American hardwood, with stout hemp-like rope as instead of skirting where the treads meet the curved wall: it’s a suitably nautical or marine-like touch and a clever solution to masking the joint, and elsewhere floors are a mix of tumbled marble, chequerboard-like tiling and hardwoods.

In contrast, an open tread winding stairs, on a steel skeletal frame or spine, leads to the second floor, home to three of the six bedrooms, with a generous supply of bathrooms/en suites to go around, and there’s a further harbour viewing perch up here, under the high-level roof apex.

Rooms at ground level, which has some slight internal split levels with polished hardwood steps, include a large tiled kitchen/diner with maple units, and very extensive glazing off to the side in a family living/dining space, which also has French doors to one of the several patios, cobble locked, and which have a south/west aspect: there’s also garden access from the kitchen, and off the well-serviced kitchen is a utility.

In addition, there’s a carpeted living room with bay window, feature curved hardwood steps and a solid fuel stove on a granite plinth, plus a further sitting room with American oak floor and fireplace with painted chimney breast, plus copper surround.

Despite the external wooded surrounds, there’s lots of light within, thanks to glass walls, lots of Veluxes, that internal light well and well-positioned aspect, on the sloping. 0.4 acre of professionally landscaped grounds, with parking for up to eight cars, a boat or two and more than enough for any sized family, visitors and over-nighters.

On the doorstep is Monkstown village, with bus stop, art gallery, cafes and bars, a tennis club, a dinghy/sailing club, a Montessori, a marina and a golf course: there’s little or no excuse for not getting active and involved in a harbour community a short commute from Cork city.

VERDICT: Monkstown’s Castle Demesne has an unusual mix of sea/harbour proximity, and a canopy setting of mature woodland with some magnificent trees, with hidden homes, and village services to hand.

Just bring on the Caribbean sun, and calypso.......