Hunting high and low for a period home? Check out €800k Rosenburg in Cobh
Rosenburg on Cobh's Low Road overlooks a marina
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Cobh, Co Cork |
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€800,000 |
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Size |
277 sq m (2982 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
6 |
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Bathrooms |
5 |
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BER |
Exempt |
FANS of RTÉ travel show High Road, Low Road, will know that one of its two celebrity presenters draws the short straw: while one gets the five-star holiday treatment (High), the other must get by on a shoestring (Low).
No such distinction exists for those living on Cobh’s High and Low Roads. It’s 5-star all the way in this dignified coastal neighbourhood where formidable period homes are ten a penny.
Houses on the Low Road have been very much to the fore this past year as two did splendidly well on the sales front. At the western end, near Whitepoint, detached Elmville came within a whisker of €1m when it sold in November, setting a new price record on the road.
Neighbouring Oakhurst, the only other detached home of 14 on the road, went for just under €900,000.
Both homes, sold by Sherry FitzGerald, featured in Property.
Amid such market buoyancy, eyebrows are unlikely to rise at the news that a third Low Road home has come up for sale. This time it’s a semi-d, or perhaps more appropriately for a period home, “one of a couplet”, which, in Hollywood parlance, is now set for a de-coupling - from its owners.
That house is Rosenburg, one half of a pairing with Oldenburg, three-storey listed homes dug into a south-facing hillside that directly overlooks a yacht marina, and is straight across the water from the imposing naval base of Haulbowline.
Like any good period home in Cobh, Rosenburg comes with a backstory, inevitably linked to the English gentry. Built in the 1860s, the original owners were the Rushbrookes, a UK-based family headed by a Colonel Robert Rushbrooke of Rushbrooke Hall, Suffolk (a property bought by Lord Rothschild in the early 20th century).
The Rushbrooke name became an integral part of the history of Cobh when the Colonel’s daughter, Frederica Harriet Rushbrooke and her two children were granted lands under the Midleton Act (1850) following the death by suicide of the 5th Viscount Midleton, George Alan Broderick, who died by inhaling charcoal. Rosenburg was in an area originally known as Middleton Park.
The current owners of Rosenburg, Arthur and Elaine Stack, say the houses on the road originally had numbers, not names, and where the names came from is up for debate. What they do know is that the Rushbrookes leased it to the British Admiralty who had a strong presence in Cobh at a time when Ireland was under British rule and the port of Cobh (then Queenstown) was of great strategic importance within the Empire.
The lease continued into the 20th century after which the Stacks say the property went through “several long-term lease agreements with Cork legal firms and the Munster and Leinster Bank”. It passed into private hands after it was bought in the early 1970’s by David and Mary O’ Grady, a local family with Irish military connections, David being an Irish military officer.
When the Stacks, both born in Cobh, bought Rosenburg in 1993 they were seduced by its waterside location, the size of the garden (the site extends to about one third of an acre) and its proximity to schools, the town centre and the train station.
It was seven years into their marriage and they were excited at the prospect of a renovation project.
A 10-year renovation ensued, during which time the house was completely re-wired, floorboards were lifted, treated and reinstalled, internal walls were stripped to stone and replastered and original doors were sent to Cork and dipped to remove decades of paint. The heating system was also upgraded.
During conversion of the original scullery into a more modern kitchen, original brickwork was uncovered which now forms a striking backdrop to a large and ancient Aga.
Original kitchen quarry tiles were lifted and reinstalled and polished by a local master tiler.
“It was at this time that the servants’ quarters on the top floor were converted to three bedrooms and two bathrooms with additional skylights,” the owners say and as a result, these rooms have a more modern feel than the rest of the house.
The largest bedroom on the top floor has an ensuite with jacuzzi bath and separate shower. There’s a door too to a room created in what was the original water storage area and this could be used as a dressing room or for storage, as the water management system was moved.
On the floor below, the largest bedroom has a beautiful bay window with views across the harbour and a window seat from which to enjoy them.
It also has a fireplace and an ensuite with a roll top bath. There’s a second rolltop bath in the family bathroom which is also on the first floor and a quirky separate footbath comprised of a Belfast sink with brass taps, retrieved from the kitchen during renovations and put to novel use rather than dumped.
Both Victorian cast iron baths were locally sourced and sent by the Stacks to Belfast for re-enamelling.
They also refurbished the hall and installed Victorian glass in the double doors of the porch and a new coloured glass window at the first return of the stairs.
Antique furniture in the house was also restored.
For the kids, of whom two of the four were born at Rosenburg, a playful mezzanine deck was added to a first floor bedroom which can easily accommodate three single mattresses. It’s essentially the lofty deck of a pirate ship masquerading as a giant upper bunk, or wherever it is that your imagination takes you.
There’s tonnes of room below deck too to detain wayward crew or to add more beds to the ship’s sleeping quarters. It was built by a German craftsman with a business in Cork and there’s a good chance it was one of the most missed aspects among younger members of the Stack household when they upped sticks and moved to San Diego in California in 2004.
Before doing so though, they got the garden in order, restoring an orchard and pathways and re-opening tiered vegetable plots on the westward side.
Whoever takes over at Rosenburg now will see the outline of the vegetable plots and will appreciate the various strategic seating areas in the south-facing, harbour-facing front garden, where lots of mature planting is in evidence, including some tropical-looking trees, which thrive this close to the sea.
At every turn, the Stacks endeavored to respect Rosenburg’s heritage, retaining as much of its original character as possible. A fireplace removed from the kids’ bunk room was reinstated in the grander of two downstairs reception rooms.
Like the overhead bedroom, it has a beautiful bay window and also a dainty little door to an outside patio area where once there was a conservatory. Liz Hannon of English Auctioneers, who is handling the sale of Rosenburg, says an old aluminum conservatory was knocked but if someone wished to replace it, they could take a look at nearby Oakhurst, which has a superb reinstated conservatory on its western gable, built to replace a Victorian original.
After the Stacks traded Rosenburg for San Diego in 2004 on an overseas business assignment that arose as a result of Arthur’s work in the oil and gas industries, they would return annually with their four sons to Rosenburg for the summer holidays.
Some of their best memories are of summers sailing in the harbour and also of Christmas and the very large Christmas trees that period homes are built to accommodate.
At 3,000 sq ft, Rosenburg was a terrific home for milestone celebrations such as birthday parties and a 2000 Millenium Garden Party. Most recently it was used in September 2022 for the Stacks’ eldest son’s garden wedding.
Their move to sell up now is the upshot of a decision to remain in Melbourne, Australia, where they have lived since 2008. While they have rented Rosenburg out as an AirBnB since 2015 “with many repeat customers” particularly families visiting from overseas, the Stacks feel it’s time for a new family to enjoy it, as they have been its “custodians” for nearly 30 years.
“We would love to see another family make it their home. We reared four boys and the family before us also had four boys who all used the garden as a playground.
“The house is made of stone, and it will be there for many generations to come,” the owners say.
Ms Hannon is guiding Rosenburg, which is BER exempt, at €800,000, and she says it’s “an exceptional property with an abundance of character and charm”. She says new owners may wish to carry out further upgrades (some windows are single-glazed and original sash windows were not reinstated by previous owners). New owners may also look at installing windows on the westward side, where windowsills suggest they were present at some point in the past.
A new owner may also decide to relocate the kitchen to the smaller of the two reception rooms to enjoy the waterside views.
This room has another room off it, which used to be the Butler’s Pantry, serving what was then the formal dining room.
Outside, Ms Hannon points out a car port. Up at the back of the tiered garden, there’s pedestrian access to the High Road.
Ms Hannon expects Rosenburg to generate strong enquiries from overseas: Elmville and Oakhurst both sold to UK buyers, including one ex-pat.
“This is the kind of property that attracts ex-pats. I also expect interest from up the country, buyers who realise that this kind of money might only buy a small house in Dublin, whereas in Cobh, you get a fabulous period home with spectacular views, large gardens and maximum privacy,” Ms Hannon says.
If it follows in the footsteps of other Low Road homes, Rosenburg is likely to hit the high (bank) notes.
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