Fingers 'greener than the grass' at blooming marvellous Cobh waterfront home
The gardens and view at Cedarwood, Ballynoe, Cobh
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Cobh, Cork |
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€620,000 |
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Size |
223 sq m (2,400 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
4 |
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Bathrooms |
3 |
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BER |
C3 |
THOSE who know their blechnum spicant from their polypodium vulgare could probably tell that the framed Gardener’s Life magazine cover hanging on the wall of the conservatory at Cedarwood is in fact a spoof.
The front-page tributes lay it on thick: “Blooming Marvellous” runs one headline, followed by “Fingers greener than grass”. While the page is a mock-up, done for fun by a family member, the sentiment is genuine. Their mother was a gardening whizz and the scale of her achievement becomes clear when you see what the site looked like when the current owners bought it in 1975. (see pic below).
It was essentially a grassy plot with little else going on, previously part of farming land.
“Back in the early days, a white wooden picket fence surrounded that grassed garden, which was occasionally visited by the local farmer’s cows looking for an extra serving,” says one of the owners’ daughters, tongue-in-cheek.
She adds that since then, the garden has been gated and fenced. It’s also been cultivated to the pinnacle of horticultural excellence, thanks to almost 50 years of effort by her mother, who had no professional training.
“Though mum had no professional qualifications or previous experience with gardening, her love for it grew, and with the help of many gardening books (no Google then) and less balls being kicked across the garden as the we grew older, her passion was able to develop,” her daughter says.
The range of plants is phenomenal, bolstered by the microclimate in Cobh’s Ballynoe, just above the water, where the channel narrows downstream from Lough Mahon, as the River Lee makes its way to the sea.
Every season produces something new: azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias put on a spectacular spring show, agapanthus, roses, lilies, Adams Needle, clematis and hydrangeas flower in summer.
Trees don’t take a back seat either and there are some beauties. The Judas Tree produces a prolific pink display in spring, and there are Forrest Pansies, Acers, Sorbus, Variegated Maple, Shaped Hollies, lollypop- shaped Bay trees, Myrtles, Black Lace Elderflowers, Pieris, Magnolias.
“Even an indoor yucca has grown into a mature tree in the middle of the outdoor patio,” the owner’s daughter says, and while your first instinct on seeing it might be that it eats into the spectacular water vista, the concern subsides when you notice the nearby conservatory, which embraces the view in full.
Even if there was no house on the half acre site, you’d be tempted to camp out there, so handsome is the view. It’s what sold it to the current owners when they first took a look in the mid-1970s, having returned from living abroad in the Middle East and Africa.
At their first viewing of Cedarwood, the well-known Cork-Swansea ferry, the Innisfallen, sailed past.
“That sealed it for them, along with the overall vista,” their daughter says.
The house, a 2,400 sq ft, two-storey, detached home, built in 1974 by John Jeffers, was designed by Cobh architect Bernard Kiely. Like any good architect, he made sure the principal rooms faced the light and best sights. The main downstairs living room is south-facing, looks down over the paradisical front garden and out over the water, through floor-to-ceiling windows.
The conservatory, which extends out beyond the main living room, has even better light and views.
Upstairs is angled so that three of four bedrooms enjoy the views too. The installation of new Hele windows in 1990 was a sound decision – they frame the outdoors beautifully, even from the main bathroom, which looks across towards the Monkstown-end of Passage West.
The owners made some modifications to the house over the years, including adding the rear conservatory to the south-facing, river-facing section of the house, two-steps down from the modern kitchen diner. By embracing an open-plan approach, the kitchen diner also benefits from a high volume of natural light, boosted further by double doors to a side patio. The side patio is one of several. There’s another (with yucca plant) that runs along and is accessible from the main living room, and yet more patio all along the rear of Cedarwood, with raised planting up behind it, towards the roadside.
“You can be guaranteed that each season will produce a new surprise,” the owner’s daughter says, whether it be the many structural grasses that appear with their fronds in the Autumn, or the leaves on the trees as they change from green to golds, oranges and red. There’s a few “architectural” plants too, such as Trachycarpus (type of palm), giant-leaved Gunnera and even an Umbrella tree that is home to local doves.
On a practical level, a fenced off composting area is out of sight, at the bottom of the garden.
At the top of the sloping garden, steps lead down from the patio and there are many secret sitting-out areas.
There’s a more obvious one too, on the deck off the main upstairs bedroom, over the carport. A door from the ensuite bedroom opens onto the deck.
While there is much to love about the house and gardens, the sociability of the setting was an important aspect too for the family, as they loved to entertain, and the ability was there to do so, inside and out.
“Every Christmas Day, Cedarwood was a hub of neighbours, friends and relatives who visited for morning drinks, a home full of laughter, memories and a couple of well-cooked Christmas dinners that didn’t get served until much later then intended.
“The hosts were well known for their knowledge and interest in the drinks’ market,” their daughter laughs.
They also loved watching the nearby Passage West ferry doing its constant crossings of the river, as well as the “many ships, yachts, rowers and even windsurfers that passed up and down”.
They loved their neighbours on the quiet avenue; the resident doves who waited patiently each morning for breakfast at the conservatory doors; Freddie the pheasant who visited occasionally, and most of all their two children, their dogs, and later, grandchildren, all of whom made it “the wonderful home it has been”.
Their wish now is that the next owner of Cedarwood will care for it (and for the plants and birds) as much as they did and that they will have “as much love and happiness in it as the current family has had”.
Selling Cedarwood is Johanna Murphy of Johanna Murphy & Sons and she says Cedarwood is "an ideal home for a growing family, just 15 minutes by foot from Cobh town, close to the cross-river ferry and with plans down the line for a rail station at Ballynoe".
The guide price for Cedarwood, where additional accommodation in, includes a second living room, a utility, a large hallway and three bathrooms, is €620,000.
The garden itself is superlative, but combined with the view, it's a knockout. You'd be hard pushed to find a nicer setting anywhere in Cobh. Expect lots of interest.
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