Get your ducks in a row for €650k East Cork home with wildlife pond

Set-to-fly Belmont House has take a turn for the better, says Tommy Barker

Fri, 26 Jan, 2024 - 12:00

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports

Cloyne, East Cork
€650,000
Size	343 sq m (3,680 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	5
BER	C3

IT’S JUST eight years since this Cloyne area east Cork home — Belmont House and its wildlife pond habitat for birds, fish, and frogs, near beaches, now-buzzing Ballycotton and Ballymaloe House — last changed hands.

Belmont House is close to Ballymaloe heartland

But, as it comes back to market, it’s far from the same property.

Belmont House is a well-feathered nest in its own right, standing as it does on 2.5 acres in affluent farmland in County Cork, just off the beaten track and was found back in 2015 by a couple, John and Olga O’Brien, who’d lived and worked in the UK most of their adult lives and where they’d reared their own family.

The couple, freed up from work pressure after John retired from his teaching job, threw their eyes over Cork as a place to reconnect with their Irish roots. Olga’s from Cork city, he’s from Wexford originally and had taught religious education among other subjects, and Belmont House was an answer to their prayers when they spotted it.

Done up inside and outside and all points in between

They had considered Cork primarily, where Olga had family home/property links still in any case as well as county familiarity, and Kinsale really appealed as a first preference. But, they found it way too pricey for what they needed, looking both for indoor and outdoor space.

So, Belmont House really fitted the bill for them.

They bought back in 2015, and moved in on February 1 , 2016, almost eight years ago to the day, and not only have they worked on the house and revitalised their alluring, and nicely sized, feature garden pond but their family has also moved on, with a grandchild now aged three years in the UK about to be joined by a sibling in the next few months.

So, as grandparents to a growing brood over the pond that is the Irish Sea, they are definitely feeling the pull of love and duty and more, and are quite happily making the move back, in reverse as they say, to their own children’s and now grandchildren’s lives which are very much in the UK, despite having loved visits to east Cork, on and off.

Set at a quiet back road junction at Kilmacahill, a few miles from Cloyne village and its round tower, and with good neighbours close by so as not to feel in any way remote, Belmont House is fresh to market with Midelton estate agent Adrianna Hegarty who guides the one-off detached home and its lofted adjacent multi-use garage at €650,000.

It dates back several decades, was originally home to a builder who put in the main effort, it changed hands subsequently before the O’Briens’ happy years here, and it’s clearly in as good shape now as it was back on day-one.

Better, in many ways even, thanks to recent upgrades, and is in absolutely walk-in condition or, waddle-in order for ducks, terns and other wildfowl who’ll be back in equally happy residence here in coming summer months when this home is set to be in fresh ownership.

Among the work done in the current owners’ hands was a modest-sized extension to the back, over two levels and which however has been quite transformative in the way the kitchen/dining room works and relates to its pretty extensive grounds.

Today, this heart of the house opens to the garden and the pond vista — very fully — thanks to bifold doors, in five sections, which draw back to give unfettered access from indoors out to a very substantial all-weather deck, where the original timbers have been replaced with dark-hued climate-impervious composite boards, spanning a wide sweep of house right out to the side of the c 1,200 sq ft garage, and with further walks then from the property to the pond which is ringed with mature trees, and which has a simple bridge access to a tiny island.

The pond has its own aesthetic for one and all, whether walking up to it or flying in, and it’s ready to be stocked with koi or other fish as next owners (or, herons) might savour.

The pond was brought back from a pretty neglected, overgrown state from a few years back by the O’Briens, aided and abetted by the advice of botanist Frances Gallagher, from Whitegate, who guided ‘city folk’ as to how to nuture Irish pond life, and on the professional build front they had the services of engineer Lucy Walsh, of Foundation and Design, Midleton, and the on-the-ground help and heft of local builder Mark Higgins.

Belmont House weighs in at a reported 3,680 sq ft, but that’s for the main house and the impressive, multi-use garage which is attached to it by a high, screening and sheltering privacy wall.

That double garage is c 1,100 sq ft, with roller doors access and a quite steep stairs up to a first floor open room with a shower room en suite, used as a gym, with gable window for garden view distractions while on the treadmill, so netting back that floor area the main house itself is hitting about the 2,500 sq ft mark.

It’s all set inside tall brick pillars and ornate wrought iron gates, with a part-brick and part painted render external façade, to a generous dormer design but one which also gets in good head height to the first floor rooms.

Internally, it has three en suite bedrooms, the main one with a gable balcony overlooking the pond and grounds, with two access points to floored attic spaces (with Stira and Velux) for storage, while there’s also a ground floor en suite guest bedroom/home office, with a corner bath now fitted into the bathroom here after breaking a section out into the hall.

Home gym above the garage has attached shower room

Other internal layout changes see a new stairs with glass balusters put in: the previous layout had a spiral stairs, and this gives a much more open feel, made possible thanks to the alterations when the kitchen was being pushed out.

OFF the hall to the left is a dual aspect living room, with a gas fire and marble fireplace now in place of a hearth-mounted stove, and this room also opens into a comfortable, triple aspect sun-room, with high efficiency electric air circulating heating, and with garden/deck access.

The kitchen is now large and highly functional for all sizes of family gatherings and events, the folding doors are a scene setter, and there’s a large marble toped central island, new cream gloss units, also marble topped (from Hickeys in Ovens), with a vertical wall-mounted radiator, US style fridge freezer, and a range cooker: there’s also a utility room off.

Virtually all flooring has been replaced, bar the original solid timber floor in the sun-room, and decor is ‘as-new,’ as is much of the internal feel and finishes.

The Price Register shows the home selling back in 2015/16 for €322,500, before the recent upgrades and considerable additional expenditure.

Its 2024 selling agent Adrianna Hegarty describes Belmont House as a graceful home on 2.5 acres “offering an expansive and private sanctuary retreat; one of its many enchanting features is a picturesque mature pond adorned with a little island, accessed by a charming bridge”.

VERDICT: Get your ducks in a row for east Cork?