Wearing of the green(ery). See the wood from the trees at Cork harbour's woodland-set €1.5m Brookwood
Away in the woods: No 3 Brookwood is a large, contemporary one off in woodland above the Crosshaven-Carrigaline Road by Drakes Pool, Agent Patricia Stokes guides at €1.5 million
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Carrigaline/Crosshaven, Cork Harbour |
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€€1.5 million |
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Size |
492 sq m (5,300 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
5 |
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Bathrooms |
6 |
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BER |
A3 |
Cork’s No 3 Brookwood is within a niche cluster of about a dozen one-off houses stitched in among 80’ old pines, birches, beeches, ash and alder amongst other native hardwoods, above the road and Cork harbour greenway, between Carrigaline and Crosshaven: there’s so much woodland between them, residents barely know they have neighbours.
Originally part of the Aghamarta Estate which ran from the Owenabue Estuary back to Fountainstown and towards Crosshaven, there are now a dozen homes sparsely scattered amongst almost 80 acres, on sites with natural boundaries, much loved by birdlife and wildlife, including red squirrels, foxes, badgers and even by some wild, grazing deer.
No 3’s actually the second house on this site, as the family of occupants had bought a smaller house here, considered extending, but later decided to replace it altogether as making more sense (the original No 3 also featured here in these pages back in 2006, described as a 1,800 sq ft architect-designed house with faux stone, gothic timber windows and had a €800,000 AMV at that time.)
Utterly different now, naturally, but also clearly architect designed, the replacement No 3 is about three times the size of the original No 3. It has main entry points at two and even three levels including a formal entry with canopy and opening to half levels, one down, one up.
Switching to this heat source halved the energy bills, says the man of the house approvingly, and those improvements in heating sources and more tweaks along the way have resulted in a formal endorsement of his sentiment, as it gets a highly impressive A3 BER.
Estate agent Patricia Stokes has the sale of No 3 Brookwood, and she guides at €1.5m: at that price level, it’s on a par with a few recent sales of homes in Carrigaline/Crosshaven, most with sea views by Myrtleville and Fountainstown, but also with a contemporary home called Ngong at Kilnagleary, which sold in 2021 for €1.74m: that massively rebuilt and extended c7,000 sq ft home Ngong had included an indoor swimming pool.
Like Ngong, No 3 Brookwood is a walk-in job for any relocating buyer, even a change of some of the feature wall colours (various purples, mauves and pinks distinguish it right now) will have the effect of re-personalising it, while there’s likely to be an option to buy furniture if next occupiers really want a smooth takeover, as the family are downsizing, within the area.
Money clearly wasn’t spared here, at any stage along the way, it’s all high quality, with external limestone paving, covered outdoor fire area, walnut timbers and doors, oversized skirtings, chrome fittings, contemporary two-tone kitchen by local quality makers House of Coolmore with Silestone tops, Italian porcelain tiling on floors, underfloor heating, bedroom built-ins from House of Design, glass balusters, and 2.7m/8’ 8” high ceilings at both levels.
Design was by architect Kieran McDonagh, via Dennehy Architects at the time, and he was given a pretty free hand – once the couple committed to going ‘contemporary’, and a notable feature is the windows placement, with lots of vertical windows framing close-up woodland views.
Even though the house site was already quite densely wooded, the owners planted a further stand of silver birch which are rapidly maturin. Also stand-out in the gardens with its meandering walks are several very large Dicksonia tree ferns, with spreading canopies and, right now, drifts of daffodils below and planted all about, in abundance.
There’s more formality in the garden section, with outlines of box hedging, on the main approach where there’s a choice of entry levels, including entry via a double garage’s lofty roller shutter doors: in fact, there’s room in the spacious garage for more than a couple of cars, and it includes an electric charge point too.
Auctioneer Trish Stokes points to what she thinks is a real selling point in No 3’s internal layout, and that’s the way the main top level has both living, kitchen and dining on one super-bright level along with four en suite bedrooms, along with an easy flow to the uppermost sun room, and down to the multi-use lower level, almost, as she says, a carbon copy of the footprint, but with an array of room uses.
Thus, there’s a fifth bedroom at the lower level with bathroom, so ideal for a guest, older family member, au pair or other, and this level also has a gym, further living room, games/playroom, with the latter much used by grandchildren, with a creche-load of toys out for immediate play. If older children are coming, it could easily hold a snooker or pool table, tennis table, foosball and more.
There are two internal stair access options inside No 3, either through a carpeted stairs in the bedrooms wing, or else via the main entry with its 14’ high ceiling, and then half levels up, or down.
This room, glazed on two sides, is 5 metres by 4, with sliding door to a flat roof area with outdoor seating under a gazebo, and is a preferred spot for watching sunsets over the trees and estuary.
Too large to be called a Crow’s Nest, it nevertheless looks over a very large tillage field to the south, at Aghamarta, where there’s the tantalizing knowledge that the sea and coastline is just a few miles away at Fountainstown, while the Owenbue estuary near Drakes Pool is just a few hundred metres in the other direction, past the woods and the main Carrigaline-Crosshaven road and riverside greenway walk along the old rail line.
Inhabitants in the dozen houses in Brookwood (initial planning was for 10) can take some reflected glory in the huge success of the Greenway, as a financial contribution to the Greenway’s development was levied on the developers/FBD as part of the planning grant.
