Bless me Fathers, Kiltegan House in Douglas is on the market for €1.25m

The three-storey home has housed retired missionary priests for the past 20 years

Sat, 20 Jan, 2024 - 07:01

Catherine Shanahan

Douglas, Cork
€1.25m
Size	409 sq m (4,400 sq ft)
Bedrooms	6 / 7
Bathrooms	6
BER	E1

WE live in an era when house-hunting is almost a blood sport, when you need a near missionary zeal to succeed in securing a home of your own.

The priests who have lived at Kiltegan House on the outskirts of Cork city for the past 20 years did have a missionary zeal, although theirs was for spreading the Christian message and not for stockpiling property.

God gave them a generous leg up when the congregation they are members of chose to buy a house on the Douglas Road. It was an inspired choice — perhaps divinely — because the neighbourhood is greatly sought-after and buyers are prepared to pony up to live there.

Whoever buys Kiltegan House will be ponying up a fair bit, as it’s on the market for €1.25m, but it is a big house (4,400 sq ft) and it is on half an acre and you can walk from it to both Cork City centre and Douglas village.

Anyone walking out from town past St Finbarr’s Hospital and past Tesco Express may or may not notice the entrance to this graceful old home formerly known as Lauriston House, when it was in private ownership.

Before being occupied by a religious congregation, a family lived there. Later, that family built a house to the rear, over the garden wall from Lauriston, with an entrance from neighbouring Bellair estate.

Some further development took place to the front of Lauriston House: two pairs of semi-ds were built around 2006, either side of the entrance to the main house, christened Laurel Grove.

The net effect of the additional house building was a reduction in the overall site-size at Lauriston House, but it still sits on a generous 0.5 acres.

This tranquil acreage was part of the package when Lauriston House was sold about 20 years ago to the Wicklow-headquartered Kiltegan Fathers, who changed the name to Kiltegan House, Kiltegan House has been home to retired missionary priests (Kiltegan Fathers/ St Patrick’s Missionary Society) for the past two decades but it’s being sold now as the diminishing congregation is relocating to one of Cork’s satellite towns. (Previously the Fathers had a house where you will now find the Rochestown Park Hotel).

They leave behind a lovely, if dated, property on very well-maintained, expertly-planted, enclosed grounds.

The entrance to the house is set back from the Douglas Road, beyond Laurel Grove, and the property is inside remote-controlled electronic gates.

Kiltegan House is the kind of property that will most likely appeal to a range of buyers. It’s already proven itself as a family home. It’s also demonstrated its suitability for a particular type of community.

Its proximity to St Finbarr’s Hospital and the privacy that comes with might make it attractive to the HSE.

Whatever its future, there’s a fine range of accommodation, spread over three floors, at this c100-year-old property.

A bright entrance porch with a hint of the ecclesiastical (coloured-glass fanlights) leads to a high-ceilinged hallway with decorative arch.

There are four reception rooms on the ground floor, as well as a sunroom, and kitchen/breakfast room.

A utility, laundry room, and shower room are also on the ground floor.

A central stairwell off the hallway leads to a first floor lobby and three, substantial ensuite bedrooms.

There’s another bathroom and more bedrooms overhead, half a dozen in total across the two upper floors, with the potential for a seventh, or for using the extra room for storage.

Kiltegan House is a home of generous proportions, with scope to extend if new owners wished to do so, subject to planning consent. If a family was to buy it, it’s likely they would re-model and modernise, as well as upgrading the insulation: the energy rating is E1.

The good news is that the roof was replaced in 2008.

The trade off for having to invest further is the stellar location, near schools, shops, and hospitals; the privacy and parking and other extras such as a walled-in courtyard, landscaped gardens, a detached double garage, and two workshops.

Selling this Society house is Ger O’Dea of O’Dea Properties and he says it’s “a unique, standalone, superbly-appointed residence ... a rare opportunity”.