McKechnie’s make a clean break from €650,000 family home in Cobh
Lynwood, Cobh
Cobh, Co Cork €650,000 Size: Bedrooms: 8 Bathrooms: 4 BER: Exempt
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Cobh, Co Cork |
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€650,000 |
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Size |
427 sq m (4,600 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
8 |
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Bathrooms |
4 |
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BER |
Exempt |
FAMILY was at the core of everything in Lynwood, a joyfully boisterous Cobh home, where a lively bunch of siblings kept things interesting under the benevolent gaze of parents who embraced life and encouraged their children to do likewise.
Those siblings have nothing but fond memories of their parents, the late Craig and Mary McKechnie, whose family-run business, McKechnie Cleaning Services, is at fifth-generation stage, having started out c 1870, under Scottish ancestors, who made their way to these shores.
As keen sailors and in need of a large home to house more than half a dozen children, Craig and Mary moved to 4,600 sq ft Lynwood in Rushbrooke in the 1970s, from their Montenotte home at Carrigmore, itself a fine property with views of the inner harbour, but which ultimately made way for a housing development.
They bought Lynwood from a couple of sisters and even though it is your typical big, high-ceiling period property, its role was not as a trophy home. It was bought for the business of living, to cater for the needs of eight children, and to make the most of a life by the harbour and the views that come with it.
Its size meant everyone had their own little corner to enjoy whatever it was that made them tick — from painting, to gardening, to partying, to bridge-playing, to knocking out tunes on the grand piano that takes pride of place in the giant bay window of the living room.
Craig, according to his children, was a talented pianist, who formed a jazz quartet more than half a century ago and played with the likes of the late Jack Brierley, who had his own showband and who penned the Eurovision Song Contest entry ‘Do I Dream’ sung by Maxi in 1973. Mr Brierley, who died in January, was resident musician at Hayfield Manor Hotel until he retired last year.
“We woke up in the morning to the sound of Daddy playing the piano and we went to bed at night to the same sound,” says one of Craig’s daughters, who adds that her father also hosted a music programme on RTÉ radio.
Their parents were busy people, from running a business, to raising eight children, to involvement in the Rotary Club (of which Craig was president in the 1960s, rubbing shoulders with soon-to-be-assassinated US president JFK during his visit to Cork City Hall in 1963, where he received the Freedom of the City). In 2014, Craig was one of just three Corkonians to be made an honorary Rotary Club member.
He was commodore of Baltimore Sailing Club in the mid-70s, while Mary, the lady commodore, was best known for her skilled bridge-playing, serving as secretary to the Sunday’s Well Bridge Club and winning trophies into her late 80s. She was also an accomplished golfer. In fact, there’s a fabulous photograph in Lynwood of Mary on the balcony of Cork Golf Club in Little Island with a group that includes Spanish maestro and five-time Ryder Cup winner Seve Ballesteros, who came to visit in 1983, when Mary was lady captain.
There are many fabulous photographs in Lynwood, mainly as Craig was a talented photographer, including pictures of great historical interest, such as one of the last steam train out of Rushbrooke; a close-up of the Asgard yacht as it passes Lynwood, (when it was still a sail-training vessel, having left behind its gun-running days) and a close-up of the magnificent QE2 cruise liner, during its final visit to Cobh in 2008.
The QE2’s arrival was the perfect excuse for a garden party, at 7am, out on the lawn, and no better spot to take it all in.
Parties were a feature of life at Lynwood, with one sister organising seating for more than 100 people upstairs on the very large first-floor landing, deploying bridge tables to supplement trestle tables, to fit everyone in.
The same sister was also a “Pimm’s girl” back in the day, and indirectly played a role in another sister meeting her South African husband.
“I was a Pimm’s girl at a yachting event in Kinsale and my sister was supposed to be coming, but instead she came down the stairs crying saying that she had nothing to wear.
“In the end, she came to Kinsale, and I said, ‘You must come and meet the South Africans”, and she met the man who became her husband.
“On the day of the wedding, she left from Lynwood to get married and they came back for the wedding breakfast. Later in the day, my brother-in-law brought the boat to the steps across the road — we had a mooring at Whitepoint and kept a boat there — and the newlyweds set sail around the harbour,” the sister says.
Another sister also left for her wedding out of Lynwood and there are photographs of lovely floral displays in the white-washed courtyard off the kitchen, which her siblings say was put to good use for barbecues, including barbecuing the Christmas turkey.
Food was easily transferred from barbecue to kitchen to the formal dining room, where a very large table could easily seat the whole family, and then some.
You passed a bar along the way from the kitchen to the dining room, with an aerated pantry behind it.
“We had amazing Christmases,” the siblings say.
Despite many children and lots of high jinks, their parents were never fazed.
“When I said I was having a party for more than 100 people, they didn’t bat an eyelid,” one sister says. “They never said no.” Craig and ‘Mrs Craig’ as Mary was known, enjoyed socialising themselves and knocked much enjoyment out of Cobh, from tennis to croquet (nearby Rushbrooke Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club), from bowling to sailing.
“Our door was always open. My parents used to leave the key in the door at Carrigmore and they did the same in Cobh. Everyone was welcome,” the siblings say.
Through that lofty, ivy-clad door is a lovely porch, with arched windows on either side and double doors into a large hallway.
The first room you encounter is a reception room, still known as “granny’s room” because it was where their grandmother spent a lot of her time when she moved in to Lynwood. The surprise in this room is a lift in the corner which travels to the return of the stairs where there’s a bathroom and a shower room. It was installed before granny ever arrived, the siblings say, by forward-thinking parents, to future proof their home for their later years.
Both the first and second floor has four bedrooms. On the first floor, one of those bedrooms was initially used as a separate drawing room, to give the adults some privacy downstairs.
All of the front rooms have beautiful views.
The house is full of antiques (Mary and Craig loved antiques auctions), as well as original fireplaces and even some original friezes in a few of the downstairs rooms. In the kitchen, the servants’ bells are still on display, dating to the days when these impressive, paired, period homes on Cobh’s Low Row were built to house officers of the British admiralty. “Dad loved antiques and he loved history too,” the siblings say, adding that he got an honourable mention in one of Dr Alicia St Leger’s history books of Cork, having contributed to it.
Their mother loved gardening and the grounds of the house are testament to her hard work, helped by a gardener.
As well as a glorious selection of trees, flowers, and shrubs, she also had vegetable beds. A tiled patio out front makes the most of sunshine and views, while the tiered garden to the secluded rear has pedestrian access to the road above. A conservatory to the side of the house was blown down in a ferocious storm, but there’s a second conservatory off the dining room, albeit it’s in need of a refurb.
There’s a giant treehouse too, which has seen better days, but if restored, would be a glorious hangout for youngsters, or adults who want to enjoy the harbour views, which was why Craig built it in the first place, after apartments across the road ate into the panorama.
There’s a playground across the road too and a bridge over the nearby railway line, where trains flash by regularly, in the quick commute between Cork and Cobh. In fact, the siblings have plenty of memories of travelling to school by train back in the day, and of sometimes getting off a stop early, just to see if they could beat the train home.
The siblings have enough memories of Lynwood to fill a book, but the overriding sentiment is that it was all about family.
“Living here facilitated a wonderful lifestyle as a family. My parents embraced life on the island, as we all did. And the house has gone on to be a magnet for the grandkids, a focal point where we all got together for so many occasions. And that was the essence of Craig and Mary. Togetherness and family.” The siblings were devastated to lose their mother last November, having lost their beloved father two years earlier, but they cherish the times they had with them in Lynwood.
Now though, as they’ve all gone their separate ways, they’ve made the tough decision to sell their treasured home.
Acting on their behalf is estate agent Johanna Murphy of Johanna Murphy & Sons and she says that while the house needs some upgrading and updating, it is a quintessentially charming home, where original features have been kept intact, lending itself to “being lovingly updated”.
One of just a dozen homes on generous, elevated, waterfront sites on the Low Road, looking over towards imposing Haulbowline naval base, Lynwood is across the road from the Five Foot Way, a flat, buggy-friendly 1km walk into Cobh town.
Ms Murphy, who is guiding Lynwood at €650,000, says it lends itself to a variety of uses, including continuing as a fantastic family home or perhpas operating as a private guesthouse, given Cobh’s ever-improving tourist offering, thanks to successes like Spike Island, Cobh Heritage Centre, Titanic Trail Guided Walking Tours, and Cork Harbour boat tours.
While it will need upgrades, there’s a lovely lived-in quality to Lynwood, which it would be a pity to spoil by over-enthusiastic changes. The gardens are delightful, as are the views.
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