A converted coach house and period grace - €795,000 Memberton is a rare architectural treat
Memberton House, Whitegate
|
Whitegate, East Cork |
|
|---|---|
|
€795,000 |
|
|
Size |
390 sq m (4,200 sq ft) |
|
Bedrooms |
5 |
|
Bathrooms |
6 |
|
BER |
C2 |
WHEN Memberton House was transformed by way of a bold extension in 2006, it was not a case of making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. It was already a compelling home, but it lacked that feature so beloved of contemporary builds: a big, open-plan, living space.
This deficit was addressed with such aplomb 16 years ago, that there was no diminution whatsoever of Memberton’s innate period charm.
What you have now is the best of both worlds: a gorgeous early 19th century home with many admirable features of its era and, in a distinct design shift to the rear, a soaring glass-and-stone atrium, home to that signature open-plan area, and, on a more practical level, the physical bridge to the upper reaches of a lofted coach-house, once standalone, but now incorporated into the main house and converted into two ensuite bedrooms and a generous studio/home office.
The ambition and success of the Memberton extension is clear from the images presented here. How it was conceived and achieved was previously documented in Property when the house came up for sale in 2016 (it sold for €650,000). As outlined at the time, the then owners, who bought it in 1997, had been dipping in and out of upgrade work for a number of years, before going the whole nine yards in the mid-noughties.
Before getting into that though, it’s worth running through Memberton’s genesis, as it has quite an interesting backstory.
Traceable to the 1800s, it was built as the dower house for the much larger and long gone Mosestown House on Ballymonis estate, owned by the wealthy Roche Family, who held positions of power and peerage in the British Empire. Essentially the home to which the widow (dowager) of the family downsized after the death of her husband (sometimes referred to as “the mother-in-law’s house, with the heir taking on the estate), it was nonetheless a moderately large country home.
It remained in Roche family hands until 1907, before changing ownership a number of times, starting with the Rohan family, then the Hartnetts, local farmers who bought it in the mid 1930s on 140 acres, before being sold to the Catholic Church. The priests that then lived there took on the task of building a protective wall to keep farm horses out of their gardens.
More recently, in the early 1990s, a local couple who ran the Schooner Bar in Whitegate bought it and did their own series of renovations. But the most significant work by far was carried out by the family that bought it in 1997 and embarked on that sparkling extension c10 years later, making the most of existing old stone outbuildings while doing so.
To help them implement their vision, they drafted in architect Conor O’Sullivan of COSA, Glanmire, and engineer Kevin Finn, from Mitchelstown.
Over the next 18 months or so, a 40’ x 20’ double-height, south-facing glass-timber-and-stone atrium, with floor-to-ceiling doors and windows was added and became the link between the original house and an old coach house.
To get extra height in the coach house, the roof was raised and a band of clad timber placed under the eaves. That additional bit of height created leeway for the installation of clerestory windows, above the line of sight, but ideal for admiring the night sky. Instead of the usual vertical run near the roof line, these particular clerestory windows are slotted into the slant of the apex, in an eye-catching arrangement.
That’s not the best feature in this section of the house though – all three newly-created rooms have double-size glass sliders to a first-floor, full-length balcony that overlooks the long, lawned back garden, which was made much more accessible once the coach house became part of the living quarters.
A corridor that runs along the coach house section has a picture window at mid-point, with a window-seat, looking down on a delightful inner courtyard with an ornamental crab apple tree in one corner, cheerful lemon jasmine under a sheltered overhang and a ruby-red rose growing up along a trellis by the utility room door. Landscaping includes gravel and brick and rounded beach stones and salvaged cobbles, which someone took the trouble to painstaking lay, one by one, in cement. Suffice to say it was worth the effort. Entry to the courtyard is via a reinstated stone and brick arch, guarded by a gorgeous wooden farmgate.
Also overlooking the enclosed courtyard is the atrium, entered via extra large sliding doors. Directly opposite is another set of large glazed doors set into a stone and brick arch. Exposed stone is the unifying material between the original house, the glass atrium centrepiece and the converted coach house, with retired builder Paddy O’Donovan of Formal Construction Ltd behind most of the workmanship.
In between the opposing glass and stone walls of the atrium, under a vaulted ceiling, and with an overhead mezzanine, made safe by glass balustrades, is that open-plan dining area, a magnificent entertainment space, bounded by a high-spec single-height kitchen on one side and a family room on the other, where yet more king-size sliding doors link through to the rear garden and decking.
The setting is gloriously rural, with foxes regular visitors.
Over the family room is one of two double ensuite bedrooms in this coach house section and, at the end of a corridor, beyond the second bedroom, is a studio or home office or sixth bedroom – it’s a highly flexible space, plumbed for an ensuite.
Back on the sunlit mezzanine, a spiral staircase brings you back down through the double-height atrium to the main living space of the new build. A utility room off the kitchen is a galley kitchen in its own right. The actual kitchen has lots of very discrete storage, attractive inbuilt shelving, exposed brickwork and a mulberry Aga, electric for convenience.
A door off the kitchen leads into the back hallway of the original dower house and it’s around here that the doubt seeps in: can a truly beautiful period home ever be outclassed by a dazzling, contemporary add-on?
Everything that’s good about period homes is represented in the dower house: high ceilings, central roses, original fireplaces, Victorian tiles, some stained glass windows, original doors and architraves, uber-thick stone walls with deep, deep window seats.
Reception rooms on either side of a generous hall are elegantly proportioned, one is a drawing room, the other a gracefully decorated formal dining room, that leads to a sunroom, added by previous owners, and looking out over rolling green fields.
Halfway up the old staircase, beautiful double doors are framed by more exposed limestone.
Passing through these doors brings you to the mezzanine of the new section. Or if you continue on up the stairs of the dower house, you will find three ensuite bedrooms, decorated entirely in keeping with a home of its era. You’d be hard pushed to pick a wing to live in, but perhaps you could be guided by the seasons, camping out in the cosy, older, original home for the winter, and in the light-filled newer parts of Memberton for the summer months.
Two agents are handling the sale of c4,200 sq ft Memberton: Johanna Murphy of Johanna Murphy & Sons and Michael Daniels of Michael H Daniels & Co. They are expecting it to attract a mix of buyers, including from overseas. The guide price for the two-storey home is €795,000.
Ms Murphy says despite its idyllic rural setting, up a sweeping drive, it’s just one km from Whitegate village, 13km from Midleton and less than a half hour drive (35km) from Cork City. It’s also conveniently near to a selection of East Cork beaches and a tennis club and Ballymaloe House Hotel is about 15 minutes by car.
"It's simply divine, country life at its best. Memberton could as easily be a boutique hotel as a fabulous family home," Ms Murphy adds.
Mr Daniels says the property, set on 0.62 acres, is “most individual, certainly a statement property and likely to appeal to a broad spectrum of purchasers”. Potential buyers will be impressed by the C2 energy rating, given the age of the original house and the huge amount of glazing. It’s helped by underfloor heating downstairs in the new section. Evidence of the underfloor heating is located in a boiler shed on the ground floor of the coach house, where there is also a comms room/store and a spacious garage/workshop.
: Extended Memberton is a jewel that meets the dual desire for a period home and a large, modern, multifunctional space. Glorious home in gorgeous setting.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
