Clonard on Cork's Maryborough Hill may top most recent €1m+ sale results

Where there's a hill, there's a way? Celebrity gardener Diarmaid Gavin did the landscape design at Clonard, built on part of the grounds of an old bungalow now demolished

Maryborough Hill, Douglas, Cork
€1.2 million
Size	370 sq m (4,000 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	5
BER	B3

BACK in 2006, when the Irish property market was coming to its tigerish times’ zenith, a 1,500 sq ft 1960s bungalow called Brenwood at the very foot of Cork’s Maryborough Hill came for sale, on a cracking, rare site, under a headline ‘Where there’s a hill, there’s always a way.’

How to make an entrance

Well, some 16 years later, the hill is still there, as sought-after an address today as it was then.

But, Brenwood is gone a-way, replaced on its grounds (said to have been two-thirds of an acre back in ’06) supplanted by not one, but two far larger private homes, one of which is now for sale, enviably filled with art, artefacts, and admirable craftsmanship.

Kitchen by House of Coolmore, featured in Kitchen Magazine

One of the replacement duo, this one-off called Clonard is top quality, from top to bottom, is over twice as large as what preceded it – in fact, it’s 4,000 sq ft or 370 sq m, on 0.2 of an acre, and is going to be a prize property purchase, with nothing at all to do to it inside or outside by its next occupants, as 2022 rolls out.

Private and sheltered back garden

Don’t be in any way fooled by its almost discrete external appearance, tucked away on a screened site at the start of this hill: access is at Maryborough Avenue, just inside the entrance to Lime Trees and thus safely off the main hill/road as it starts rising out of Douglas village, all in a hinterland where €1m+ sales are back on form.

Maryborough’s Clonard is listed with estate agent Jackie Cohalan of Cohalan Downing, and she guides it at an even-sounding €1.2 million: it comes just at 15 The Paddocks across the road is recorded on the Price Register at €1.05m, and Carrigfoyle, No 13 Maryborough Orchard in the grounds of the luxury Maryborough House Hotel is shown at €1.275 million at the very end of 2021.

Rear view of Carrigfoyle, 13 Maryborough Orchard, sold in 2021 for €1.275 million

No 13 was a super-swift sale within Maryborough Orchard via agents DNG Creedon (the rumour mill says it was picked up almost sight unseen by a buyer based overseas!) making just shy of a near neighbour No 15 in the same gated enclave which is shown at is shown at €1.294 million (via Savills) at the start of ’21.

The chances of Cohalan Downing’s Clonard topping all three of those already heady sums when it sells is pretty good. Its sales momentum will be helped by the fact it’s spacious, quietly luxurious, and is a one-off, on excellent grounds, laid out day-one to a plan by celebrity gardener Diarmaid Gavin, but nicely toned down a notch or two from the sort of designs Mr Gavin was known for in the mid-2000s.

Main reception room at Clonard: note the effective use of double doors

In fact, it’s all quite hushed, inside and outside, including some triple-glazed sections to be sure to be sure, sure, for a sanctuary-like feel.

It’s been the family home of a couple, plus three, now-adult children and who have lived and worked in Cork, and much farther afield, from European cities to South Africa for the last several years. As a result, and almost unsurprisingly, their home is filled with mementos, keepsakes and art from far and wide. With family flown the nest, they are set to trade down, hoping possibly for a smaller home needing work, in the Douglas area.

Clonard will be a hard home to leave, but an especially-easy one to move into.

The couple pretty much designed it themselves, and it was delivered by builder Jim Butler, who’d done a previous home for them and who had proven his chops.

Home office on gallery/mezzanine: note roof lights

On board too were consultant engineers Malachy Walsh & Partners to do drawings and the detailed specs (mechanical, electrical, the works) for this rock-solid, two-storey home, with concrete floors, huge roof glazed panels back and front, underfloor heating, a midships mezzanine used as a central home office and which basks in light and warmth, all on a superb overall floor plan, adaptable for almost any stage of life or family size, with storage options to beat the band.

There’s a circular flow to the lower level, around a feature, double-height hall with curved mezzanine above, and with a winding staircase, made in walnut, taking a 180-degree turn in its middle and with walnut continuing then along curving glass balusters on the level it links to.

Work of art staircase

Connecting the levels, it raised the bar in its own right as a piece of workmanship in wood: there’s a turned column around which the steps seem to pivot that’s on a par with any of the carvings, sculptures or artpieces adorning the walls.

The stairs were made by Eastern European specialist joiner Aigars Dobronsk, and the couple who commissioned these standout stairs also later asked him to do two stand-alone pieces, side/console tables, also in walnut. They were destined for bathrooms, but turned out so aesthetically handsome (see p1 picture), they now are in pride of place in the hall, companion pieces for the stairs, if not even future collectibles.

The hall has a ground floor, en suite bedroom off to the left, with tall double doors facing, opening into a long living room where the extra ceiling height also comes into its own in a living space with a fireplace with open fire and /or gas options.

It’s a favoured evening time and winter room, with a painting by artist Bill Griffin in pride of place: when the couple first met, they

started a ritual of giving something creative, paintings, drawings, sculpture or ceramic pieces for Christmas and birthday presents, resulting in quite the eclectic collection with other artists including Arthur Maderson and Markey Robinson, with ceramic pieces from Charmaine Haines, who’s based in the Karoo, South Africa.

MOVING along, another similar set of double doors leads to a central dining room, with that gallery/mezzanine overhead, and it has banks of glass toward the back garden, facing south, flooding the core with light.

New cedar batten fence in nicely matured garden, originally designed by Diarmaid Gavin

It’s one of the vendor’s favourite spaces to sit at and into, read or just to look out over the garden, by a patio, with a tall, stone water feature to the side and with a new, low and curving cedar batten fence recently installed and still aromatic in its planed timber freshness.

Another fireplace (also a piece by makers Chesney) features in the dining room, with an eye-catching, almost trompe l’oeil wallpaper looking for all the world like slightly weathered zinc corrugated steel, practically a shimmering 3D effect. Given its provenance — it was sourced from Osborne & Little at London’s Chelsea Harbour Design Centre — it might have been cheaper to do it in actual galvanised metal!

Front elevation

Next up on the circular tour (the large double doors allow open-plan or more cellular use of the rooms) is the kitchen/breakfast room with family living too where there’s a rounded Hwam wood-burning stove, plus garden access.

Family area with Hwam stove, off the kitchen

The kitchen, in warm timber, light gloss, and white quartz, plus its long island, is by House of Coolmore, complete with Miele appliances and it was featured previously in Kitchen Magazine.

Dining/living is easy

Rounding out the ground floor’s smart layout (Ah! the luxury of abundant space) is a utility room, and guest WC, and flooring’s primarily a mix of marble, and walnut, with pressurised underfloor heating with individual temp zones for each room/area. Above, on the first floor (Ducon slab for soundproofing, fire safety, thermal efficiency etc) are pressurised radiator heaters, again with individual temp zones, and Clonard has, in fact two separate boilers which add to energy efficiency.

The first floor proper has four, large bedrooms, all en suite, with built-ins; most have high, feature apex windows and the main bedroom suite has access to a sheltered sit-out balcony. This is under deep, pitched eaves, overlooking the back garden and facing over Maryborough Hill to a couple of large family homes in The Paddocks (the windows here have secondary double glazing for absolute hush.) Sanitary ware in the bathrooms is by Villeroy & Boch, taps and showers are by Grohe, there’s a Jacuzzi bath, and vast hot water capacity too (sanitary ware etc came from OB Heating.)

Main bedroom with balcony

Apart from the built-ins in individual bedrooms, one side corridor has a banked wall of wardrobe storage, whilst above, in the property’s two pitched roofs sections either side of the central link with all of its glazing, are large, floored attics for additional storage, with pull-down Stira access.

Among the tech spec and electrical touches (apart from masses of sockets) are a Belgian smart system, Niko, supplied by Benelec, Cork, running all electrical light connections which are programmable to run any group of lights — very handy at a time of necessary extreme energy conservation needs. On entry, for example, one switch turns on a selection of ‘welcome home’ lights in key spots so there’s no sense of arriving into darkness beyond the hall — all is a-glow.

Then, for extra peace of mind and security — apart from the comforting fact that Douglas Garda Station is just 250 metres away — the home has a high level of ‘unseen’ supports ‘on patrol’ too, such as a Chubb alarm with remote monitoring access (ie via phone, tablet or laptop) and six HIK vision HD infra-red cameras, linked to a recording system.

Landing

Windows and doors throughout are by Danish firm Protech, sourced via Classic Windows, and the front doors, very large doubles, are by the same firm, while glass is toughened, and high-efficiency.

In terms of gardens, much of the planting now is c 20 years old, and while the original lay was by Diarmaid Gavin, who visited and consulted re layout and functionality, it’s growing into its own personality.

Curved patio, seen from mezzanine office

Right now pride of place for Clonard’s first sale viewings is a mature magnolia, by a curved patio section next to a feature waterfall, with ferns growing in a limestone wall by a seating area.

Liberal use of Valentia stone

Front approach

Some of the house’s external walls are in sharply cut and dry-stone looking Valencia stone, sourced from the quarry on the Kerry island, while the crisply detailed cedarwood fence was sourced from specialist suppliers Adanack, in Tralee, making for another Kerry supply-chain connection to a house that wears its owners’ travels deeply — just witness the animal horns from Africa, on display, including South African Oryx, wildebeest and hartebeest. Killarney stag antlers are all that’s missing now?

On market arrival, agent Jackie Cohalan has a bit of a property prize for well-heeled buyers in a ‘comfortable’ Cork south city suburb. Clonard is pristine and private, sort of a sine qua non for buyers at this price level, with immaculate grounds of c 0.2 acres, behind electric gates, within minutes’ walk of Douglas’ Fingerpost, hotels, shopping centres, bars and restaurants, the lot.

VERDICT: No horns of a home-hunting dilemma for those for those with the funds to bag this level of understated luxury.