Go High and Mighty in €895k period Kinsale townhouse

Quantity surveyor owner, an interior designer and a top joiner/builder brought 15 Cork Street to new heights of comfort and finish

It's a corker: 15 Cork Street Kinsale

Kinsale Town
€895,000
Size	252 sq m (2,225 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	4
BER	B3

STANDING head and shoulders above its neighbours, certainly in terms of height and most likely in terms of quality too, is Kinsale’s 15 Cork Street.

High, and mighty: 15 Cork Street Kinsale is a fully reworked period townhouse with a €895,000 AMV

Kinsale harbour views from top of No 15

Set in a back road/back route towards Cork city for those that know their way around Kinsale’s lesser-trafficked roads, No 15’s a late Georgian townhouse, imperious now with four storeys of accommodation, slate-hung right up on top, in traditional Kinsale style.

It’s all high-end too internally now from top to bottom, after a decade of private family ownership — a Scottish/Irish couple who relocated to Kinsale from Waterford over a decade ago and took on this refurb challenge.

Kitchen extension with French oak beam framing

They bought No 15 Cork Street back at the Irish property market’s nadir, in 2010, at a time when it was being used as staff accommodation for employees at the Old Head of Kinsale.

The Price Register shows No 15 selling back in 2010 for a quite modest €180,000, and multiples of that sum went into its rebirth.

Today, €180,000 will barely buy you a diminutive two-bed cottage in Kinsale, and the 2021 asking price on No 15 is €895,000, a sum quoted by joint selling agents Josie Dinneen, and Engel & Voelkers.

Period grace: interior designer Hannah Lordan coordinated all the craft workers and suppliers

So, No 15 might be five times what it last fetched when they bought from the O’Connor family of Old Head note, but it’s more than twice the house in terms of quality, with a high-end investment evident from top to toe, over four floors, and even those same floors have been replaced. 

It is now a fully-wired property for sound and ethernet tech, and all-electric services, including heating, with heat pump technology (two heat pumps), heat recovery system, impressive B3 BER and speakers for music in ceilings on every level.

Rear view from raised BBQ deck for evening sun

Such was the poor condition back 11 years of this almost-200 year old property (it had served as a nursing home too in early decades) that it’s all but had a rebuild: just two of the fireplaces, in the ground floor dining room and the first floor lounge, are original, restored by Nobel Fireplaces.

En suite with bath in the second floor main bedroom

The family’s financial and time-consuming investment saw floors and ceilings removed, internal partitions taken down, and then all replaced, in a more thoughtful layout, along with new joinery, redone stairs with slender turned spindles newels and gracious hardwood banister, French polished by Paddy Dunne; ceiling coving and plasterwork by Capital Mouldings; electrics; plumbing; wiring; counter-balance timber sash double glazed windows and cases, the lot.

French polisher Paddy Dunne brought grace back to the stairs and hardwood handrail

In fact, at one stage, there were clear internal sight lines up through two floors at a time, and about all that was left was the front wall, the back wall, and the roof.

Helping with the stresses and strains of such a major project were a few ameliorating factors: one was the fact one of the owners, Keith Gilchrist, is a quantity surveyor (QS) with extensive experience with period homes, and hotels in venerable buildings, in London and elsewhere in the UK.

He has regularly commuted to and from the UK, first during the family’s years in Waterford and more recently in Cork/Kinsale which he happily notes is just 25 minutes up the road/Cork Street.

He, and his wife Yvonne almost incredibly managed to do the full rebuild and upgrade at No 15 in just seven months, and they pay huge tribute to builder/joiner/master craftsperson Peter Hartigan from Carrigaline who oversaw most of the work as well as doing all of the internal joinery.

Family den beyond the kitchen

And, vitally they had the input and contacts book of interior designer Hannah Lordan, based in Penrose Wharf in Cork city, who works across all interior designs and periods, linking them with expert trades and suppliers.

“You couldn’t do it now in seven months, it would be at least a year, and if that’s only if you could get the people,” notes Mr Gilchrist as the family prepare to up-sticks and move to another Kinsale location by the River Bandon.

Long lens shot of Kinsale harbour from No 15's upper floors

They’re keen to have more outdoor space, for a daughter and a dog, but may consider a move back to town in future years, as they love having shops, cafe, bars, restaurants and services within minutes’ walk (the ‘new’ SuperValu is just a block away for a pint of milk, or the papers.)

Working with Hannah Lordan, they reconfigured layouts and select finishes, so now there’s a superb extended ground floor, including Hannah’s suggestion of a lovely curved wall in the deep hall.

Ground floor dining room

There’s an elegant front dining room, with coving stepped out from the front wall to serve as a pelmet for the luxe drapes on the three sash windows, and the chimneypiece is an immaculate restored white/grey marble beauty with corbels. Shelving either side of the chimneybreast is glass, on timber supports.

Mid-ships is a utility/laundry and then to the back is a kitchen/dining room, with family nook, with bespoke kitchen a real stunner in green French oak, imported from Carpenter Oak Ltd, in Somerset in England, set off by modern LED lighting on slender cables, a contrast to chandeliers used elsewhere. There’s a nice blend then of salvage red brick and painted hardwood kitchen units.

15 Cork Street Kinsale

Double doors lead from the kitchen to a compact outdoor spot (the larger, original back garden was sold off years ago) with steps up to a raised sit-out deck/roof terrace over the family den (with glass skylight). This elevated area gets afternoon and evening sun, used for coffees, with a Green Egg barbecue unit on standby, while in contrast to the stone and slate-hung front, the rear wall is done in a dash or harling.

Rear, with glass top bringing light to family den underneath

Back indoors the first floor is home to a front living room, again with three sash windows, marble chimneypiece with columns, and flooring as in a number of other rooms, is 4mm engineered walnut timber, with underfloor heating.

Top floor study

This first floor also has an en suite bedroom behind, with fireplace and a similar curved internal wall as seen in the hall, plus there are French/double doors to the roof terrace.

Next floor up is pretty much given over to the main bedroom suite, a large room with fireplace, walk-in-robe and big bathroom, with gleaming tiled floor and stand-alone bath. There are views out towards Kinsale harbour from this bedroom (second floor) level, and even better ones then from the smaller casement windows on the top floor, which is home to two more bedrooms, one with en suite, and to a fifth bedroom/home office, with stepped-up plinth.

Home owner Keith Gilchrist says one of the first things he does every morning is to check the views, and the tides in Kinsale harbour, from the bedroom and then on a regular basis from his home office above on the next level.

Main bedroom is on the second floor

 He quips that a property owner across the street was obliging in doing a rebuild there and actually opting to drop that other property down a level, to enhance the views all the more from the town centre’s No 15 Cork Street’s uppermost level.

VERDICT: Raised to new heights.