House of the Week: Cúl property close to Cork city with plenty bells and 'Whistles'

This is a jumbo-size family home - just under 5,600 sq ft - with seven bathrooms, a cinema room and plenty more , writes Catherine Shanahan

Whistlewood, Glanmire, raising the bar in terms of prices for leafy hillside properties at Church Hill’s Cúl na Gréine.

Glanmire, Cork
€950,000
Size	518 sq m (5575 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	7
BER	B2

WHEN expensive homes come up for sale, the temptation is to Google the Property Price Register (PPR) to see what other sales in the neighbourhood achieved.

It’s hard to find any priors at Church Hill’s Cúl na Gréine - probably because they’re only a dozen or so years old and, and each is of the home-for-life variety: bespoke, high quality, lots of added extras.

The PPR shows just one re-sale in recent years, No 2 Cúl na Gréine, making €740,000 when it sold in 2015. 

Nothing else shows up between this and then, until the arrival to market in the past few weeks of Juno, another architect-designed Cúl na Gréine home, guiding at €725,000 with Lawrence Sweeney of Savills.

Juno, also in Cúl na Gréine

 And now, Whistlewood comes along, proving that just like buses, you wait ages for one, and then two come along.

Whistlewood is raising the bar in terms of prices for these leafy hillside properties. Guiding at €950,000 with Michael O’Donovan of Savills, it may yet set the record for the first €1m re-sale within the development, but in fairness, it is a jumbo-size family home - just under 5,600 sq ft - with seven bathrooms, a cinema room, a centre-of-house lounge with fully glazed roof, and outside, an elevated observation deck, a huge patio and a detached double garage, large enough to accommodate a boat and trailer.

Mr O’Donovan says the owner “got in early” when the Cúl na Gréine sites came up for sale, securing 0.3 acres at the rear of the development, at the point furthest away from the main road.

Built in 2007, Whistlewood is extremely private, separated from the substantial Murnane & O’Shea Crawford Wood development further up Church Hill, by a substantial band of trees to the rear. 

It’s also extremely well-finished with some lovely stone cuts outside, including limestone plinths, chimney caps, thresholds and quoins. On the southern boundary, where’s a continuation of a stone mix cladding where the centrepiece is a lovely waterfall feature.

The outdoor showstopper though is the two-tier raised observation deck, on the western side of the house, catching every drop of the evening sun.

 Below it is the super-size patio, also accessed from the house via two sets of sliding doors, one from the kitchen/dining room, the other from the family room. 

Double doors also open from the kitchen/dining space to the family room, an ideal layout for entertaining as it opens up an area running the depth of the property in this portion of the house.

Beyond the kitchen is a utility, an office and a second guest WC. At the centre of the house is that lounge/den with its skylight roof “making for a most unique living space”, Mr O’Donovan says.

The double door theme continues to the first floor and into the main bedroom, which has an ensuite and a fine walk-in wardrobe. 

All bar one of the five bedrooms has an ensuite and all are doubles. The main bathroom has a wet room shower.

An oak staircase continues to the attic floor where there are three large rooms, “all of which are flexible in use”, Mr O’Donovan says. At the moment, they're functioning as a dressing room, a large office and a cinema room/home theatre with surround sound. There’s also a small security room.

Mr O’Donovan says Whistlewood is “superb” and has an excellent B2 energy rating, even though it was built 14 years ago. Energy efficiency is helped by the addition of an extra slab of insulation on the inside walls. Mr O'Donovan says another feature worth highlighting is the low-maintenance nature of the outside areas, despite their size. 

He says that so far, interest in Whistlewood is coming from the Cork market and also from Dublin.

“It’s ideal for someone who wants to be close to the city but at the same time wants the ultimate in luxury. Quality is the big thing about this house, no expense was spared,” Mr O’Donovan says.

Whistlewood is just a 10-minute drive from Cork city and within easy reach of all major road networks.

VERDICT: De luxe family home