A must-view: Carrigmore's lofty Cobh setting surveys all for €995,000

Second set of caring hands and a premium makeover ensure Carrigmore House is a stunning period Cork harbour home, and a tip-top viewing perch, writes Tommy Barker

Celebrate in style at Cobh's Carrigmore House, a hill-topping home overlooking Cork harbour.

Cobh, Cork harbour
€995,000
Size	401 sq m (4,300 sq ft)
Bedrooms	6
Bathrooms	3
BER	D1

YOU CAN see Cobh’s Carrigmore House from many parts of Cork harbour thanks to its lofty setting, but its current owners, who’ve lavished time and money on the home, first set eyes on it online, in 2019, while on the motorway from Cork to Dubin, when one of them was idly idly browsing property websites.

Cobh on crest of a wave

It was a ‘hit the brakes’ moment, instantly smitten.

Before very long the couple, Sean and Sinead Murphy had arranged a viewing, made a trip back to Cobh, fell for what they saw in its robust, physical reality, bid on it and bought it.

Sean is from Monkstown and knows Cork harbour and its period homes pretty well. Sinead is from Kildare, and both work in the tech sector. They put in the hard yards in early days in London, then Dublin and, finally, Cork where they worked on what was to be a forever family base, both remote working from their new home, commandingly set at the top of the hill.

Stairs is the central 'set piece' with triple glazed overhead roof lantern 

They’ve now one child, a son, Fionnán, and another is on the way. But, unexpectedly, after years of remote working, they are being drawn back to Dublin as, as has been clearly outlined to at least one of the couple, the realities of office-based career advancement in one of the big behemoths is ‘back in the office.’

So, the young clan are selling and heading back up the M8 motorway towards the capital after less than a five year sojourn down south, yet remain as much in thrall to Carrigmore House today as they were back in 2019.

Actually, make that probably even more so, having thoroughly exploited the potential of this large c 125-year-old home, with all of Cobh at its feet, and the harbour expanse in its sights.

Back in summer 2019, we wrote in these pages of this late 1800s home: “Notable too as a sign of the passing of time has been the ever-increasing maturity of Carrigmore House’s gardens, shrubs and trees, and with most along the boundary by Lake Road being a century and more of age, some have come to partly screen harbour and cathedral/east town views and panoramas. Nothing more than a sympathetic trim might be needed in many cases, such as with the striking and sentinel Scots Pines?”

Well, those views are here now in abundance after a considerable cut-back of the mature greenery; in fact, on revisiting, it’s utterly transformed, while the aforementioned sentinel Scots Pines and almost as large Monkey Puzzle trees are retained, serving as view framers.

Swivel your head from here and the vista now encompasses directly east to the town and to the full sight of St Colman’s Cathedral, around to the south across the panoply of islands such as Spike and Haulbowline, out to the mouth of Cork harbour at Roches Point, over and into the entrance to Crosshaven and the Owenabue.

It spans from church spires to the enormous whirring wind energy mills around Ringakiddy, as well as masts of yachts, visiting cargo ships and the comings and goings of cruise liners that light up the views at night on their widely welcomed visits, with all of the accompanying razzamatazz, bells, whistles, and brass bands, multi-decks ablaze with lights and strafed with fireworks. (Our image shown here was taken last March 17, with the cathedral bathed in green light for the day that was in it, and which rolls around again this weekend. Who’ll be here for St Patrick’s Day 2025?)

Carrigmore House is newly up for sale with agent Lawrence Sweeney of Savills, who guides at €995,000, a big step up from his guide of €550,000 when he last listed it for long-time local town business owners, the Twomey family, in summer 2016.

But, while he’d guided at €550k, the Price Register shows he sold it to the current owners that year for €761,000, and then it got considerable extra investment and upgrades, including bathrooms, rewiring, heating upgrades, including Nest app controls, along with 22 smoke and CO2 sensors/alarms, huge highly efficient hot water tank (provision has been made for solar water heating), electric showers and provision for more, full décor, careful refinishing of original floors and new first floor carpeting.

There was also extensive work on the grounds, reinstating rose beds (with Mypex weed suppressant under the surface), framed with new heavy sleepers, relaid lawns, one of them a one-time tennis court done by a groundsman for a major Cork sporting stadium, with the full extent of the extensive c 1.4 acre grounds only now fully realised after considerable overgrowth was removed, allowing the grounds to breathe.

In fact, about the only thing not addressed was a new kitchen as the couple had decided they’d like to move the present kitchen — serviceable but not exceptional — from one side of the house to the other. But, while they set up the wiring and plumbing for this and further upgrade, they hadn’t got around to actually doing itThe kitchen location they chose is on the western side, next to the very large and seasonally luscious lean-to glasshouse and into which it opens. It would indeed be a better spot, as the glasshouse is a delight in fine weather and has been highly productive each summer of late, with its old grape vine ready to burst back into bud, and with some early strawberries already in hand, in some of the large waist-height growing beds.

Green growth in the glasshouse 

It’s likely that €300,000 or so has been spent on Carrigmore House since its last market outing, with one bathroom alone (and not the largest either) swallowing up to €30k; given the quality of what’s gone in, the bar has been raised pretty high.

In fairness, this Victorian-meets-Edwardian period home was good from day one, built in the 1890s by a Samuel Kirby on land leased from the Smith-Barry family of Fota House estate fame and one-time fortune.

Other owners included the Bells and, from the 1940s to the 1960s, Carrigmore House was owned by Robert Alyward Hall, of Hall grain merchant background and whose iconic Cork R&H Hall grain silos (built between the 1930s and the 1950s) have just begun a six-month demolition process on Cork city’s south docks, for long-awaited site redevelopment.

Later again, this sizeable home was owned by the Tattan family and then local Cobh pharmacist Jack Twomey realised a childhood dream in 1987 when he and his wife Frances managed to buy it, rearing their own family here and owning it for the next 30 years before it was put up for sale by daughters in 2019.

The Twomey family recalled returning from holidays in France on the ferry and espying flags flown by their dad from Carrigmore House; after the recent, considerable opening up of the views to and from the house, there’s now even more of an open welcome on view.

Open views

The property is approached up a long private drive from Cobh’s lofty Lake Road, shared up to its mid-section by one other house, while the clearing back of the last few years and some new growth has revealed a section on the other, town side of the drive from the main house that could in time yield a trade-down or stand-alone house, or home office, or lookout/den for Carrigmore’s next occupants?

As it stands, the main residence is c 401 sq m (4,300 sq ft), lofty as well as large, surprisingly warm and bright, thanks to tall windows (double-glazed, replaced by previous owners), while the pièce de résistance is the triple glazed roof light or lantern in the house’s core, over the dramatic bifurcating pitch-pine staircase, with other key joinery around the hall and landing also in pitch pine — it’s a stunning set-piece.

Ceiling heights are over 3.5m; several of the main reception rooms have original white marble fireplaces; the kitchen has been refloored and links to a cosy family room/playroom/storage, while a small sun room with tiled roof is off the main, front reception room, partly blocking the first initial views of the 42 sq m attached glasshouse behind and off what’s currently a dining room.

The extensive patio here, facing south and west, hints of coming summer days, with a hot-tub in place, for scanning the waters of the harbour from a pool of hot water.

Other places to bask in views and sun, apart from the sunroom and glasshouse, include a first floor sun room off the main bedroom, one of six. One’s used as a home office, another in a rear wing is ideal for teens, au pairs or another home office, and all have been redecorated, with old sinks removed as part of the plumbing upgrades.

Then, there’s a sun room/conservatory off the principal double aspect drawing room, with deep bay window, a second reception alongside vying for slightly different, equally engaging cathedral views. Savills’ agent Lawrence Sweeney says luxury meets legacy here, and that it all has been “reimagined for contemporary living without losing its historical grandeur.” Returning to sell once again after the owners’ five-year, busy hiatus and adaptation for home-working he adds “it has undergone transformative renovation, updated for modern luxury while preserving Victorian elegance”.

VERDICT: Top of the town, and good for decades after works done by current and previous owners.