Madeover Cobh home is a €450,000 dazzler - and so are the views
1 Upper East Hill Cobh
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Cobh, Co Cork |
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€450,000 |
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Size |
130 sq m (1400 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
3 / 4 |
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Bathrooms |
3 |
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BER |
Pending |
REMEMBER that body spray advert that sent a guy chasing about town with a bunch of flowers after he caught a whiff of some woman’s deodorant and just couldn’t help acting on impulse? Turns out impulsivity isn’t an exclusively male thing. Ask Claire Hurley. She made the momentous decision to relocate to Cobh, after 25 years of living in Galway, while attending a funeral in the harbour town.
“I was having coffee with my sister after attending a funeral in Cobh and I said to her ‘I think I’ll move here’ and before I knew it, we were driving around the town looking for a house,” Claire says.
She bought high up on French’s Walk, on the Cuskinny side of town, in 2018, but the house needed too much work and she subsequently sold up. The following October her brother-in-law, Charlie Daly, convinced her to take a look at a house on a nearby terrace, 1 Upper East Hill.
“I remember it was the bank holiday weekend. I knew the house because I passed it every day. It was very unlived in, but I loved the feel of it,” Claire says.
Photographs show it was substantially different to what it is today.
The entire downstairs was open plan, with a staircase straight up the middle, and everything visible once you walked in the front door.
There were a couple of long bedrooms on the two upper floors (previous owners had added a third floor).
Claire hired an architect to come up with a re-design and top of her wish list was that every room would have a view.
On Upper East Hill, houses look down on the harbour, and straight out its mouth, past Camden Fort, past Roches Point. It’s exquisite.
The architect produced four different drawings, but not every room had a view.
Claire sat down with the builders and with her sister Ann, who has a flair for design, and between them they hammered out what they could and couldn’t do. Claire had her way. By putting heads together, they managed to ensure that every room (almost) did indeed have a view.
Built in 1864, No 1 is as pretty a harbour home as you will find, jaunty and inviting on the outside, simplified elegance inside.
Its downstairs open plan layout remains, but a clever staircase design hides the kitchen from the living room area.
It’s a fine big space, that easily accommodates a dining area with beautiful views; a kitchen towards the rear and a long living room. It’s delightfully bright and airy, and made cosy by night by tasty plantation shutters.
“When you have the shutters down it’s like a little cocoon. There’s a gorgeous cosiness to it, you could be anywhere in the world,” Claire says.
Every bit of space is efficiently utilised at No 1. Through a glass panelled door off the living room area is a utility room. For a while there was discussion about making it a sunroom, but the utility won out. Double doors lead from it to a small rear courtyard where attention to detail is commendable.
There are outdoor sockets and outdoor lighting, a lovely limestone patio and a lovely old stone wall that ensures absolute privacy. There’s even room to store a couple of kayaks and a barbecue.
“It gets lovely evening sun,” Claire says.
There’s a door to the courtyard from the kitchen too, so when guests are around and the weather is good, the flow is between kitchen/courtyard/utility/living area. A guest WC off the utility means no-one needs to traipse upstairs, but really, you should.
The top floor of No 1 is the showstopper. Glazed double doors open into a dazzling living room.
The dazzle is literal and figurative. On the day the Irish Examiner visits it’s like being in the Med.
Huge windows (with electic blinds) overlook the expansive harbour. It’s Claire’s go-to space in the quiet of the morning. From here she can see the pilot boats leave the jetty below and head out the mouth of the harbour to guide in arriving cruise liners which pass right by her house.
To the rear of the top floor is Claire’s home office. There’s a top-floor bedroom too, and another small room that new owners can decide what to do with.
On the middle floor are two more bedrooms and a large main bathroom.
The main bedroom is painted a beautiful Farrow & Ball Calamine, complemented by the stunning Hamlet Rose Gold tiles in the en suite.
There’s a cute dressing room too. Both bedrooms are doubles, with triple-glazed windows. The second bedroom is painted a tranquil lilac, Farrow & Ball Calluna.
Claire based her colour choices on the hues found in pebbles on Ballycroneen beach in east Cork.
Maybe it’s the nature-inspired colour choices that feed into the sense of calm at No 1. Or maybe it’s the stupendous views. Claire recalls the first time she and her dad rounded the bend by the end-of-terrace house “and it was just ‘wow’,” she says.
“We weren’t expecting that view.” Across the narrow road in front of her home are two red benches (painted by Claire), on a viewing platform. Below the benches, residents are working on a terraced community garden.
“There’s a great sense of community here,” says Claire, who is happy to share in the care of a communal garden, without having to maintain a garden of her own.
It took two years and the bones of €250,000 to get No 1 to where it is (Claire bought it five years ago for €200,000). She’s only prepared to sell if she gets the right price (the guide is €450,000).
Claire enjoyed the project and says she has one more in her, ideally in Cobh, but definitely in east Cork. The only prerequisite is that the property has a view.
Johanna Murphy of Johanna Murphy & Sons is selling No 1 and she says it’s “a fine example of how to bring an old property into the 21st century”.”.
“As well as a tremendous house, you get tremendous views, first row seats to arriving cruise liners and yachting activity,” Ms Murphy says.
She predicts interest from “an array of buyers” including from overseas, as it’s an ideal low-maintenance “lock and leave” home.
Cobh town centre, which has a regular train service to Cork City, is a short downhill stroll, Cuskinny, popular among swimmers, is a five-minute drive away and there’s a glut of water-based activities on offer.
A dashing harbourside home with panoramic views.
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