An €875k Rochestown Road hideaway right next door to planned €1m+ neighbourhood
Bofeenauan has only had one family of owners since built in 1981
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Rochestown Road, Cork City |
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€875,000 |
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Size |
184 sq m (2,000 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
4 |
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Bathrooms |
3 |
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BER |
C3 |
THERE were to be six new, €1m+neighbourhood homes at ‘Ashley’, built snuggling up to the hideaway location called Brookfield, by St Patrick’s Church in Cork’s Rochestown back at the very end of the Celtic Tiger days.
But, in the event, just four got built, one got finished and launched in 2009 seeking €1.3m. By 2011 none had sold, and there were two price drops, one €850,000 and then to €670,000.
And, while one done as showhouse was lived in for a while, the niche scheme Ashley which launched with high hopes and top prices remains an unfinished project, possibly tied up in protracted legal and other disputes.
While the Edwardian/Arts and Crafts style houses of up to 2,700 sq ft with ornate clay tile roofs and ‘bonnets’ tiled have languished, the four private homes at the adjacent Brookfield - built back around 1980 – got on with the job of rearing families in an all-but hidden setting off the Rochestown Road, in a cul de sac just before the turn up to Clarkes Hill.
None of the Brookfield four appears as of yet on the Property Price Register which shows sales back to 2010, so apart from owners and visitors, their existence isn’t widely known about: “it’s the first of the four to every come up for sale, so that shows just how happy with location all of the owners have been here,” says auctioneer Patricia Stokes as she brings No 2 Brookfield to the open market, as an executor sale.
Some of that anonymity might change now with the arrival of Bofeenauan, aka 2 Brookfield on the open market, launched just prior to Easter and Ms Stokes notes it has been a private home to the same family for all of its days up to now right back to 1981.
So, some 40-+ years later there’ll be a bit more exploratory activity in Brookfield, where No 2 is at the far end of the cluster of four all with mature grounds, with No 1 on the left on entry, and nos 3 and 4 just on the eastern side, with No 2 at the boundary with Ashley and two of its as-yet undeveloped sites.
No 2 carries the name Bofeenaun, called after a townland in Co Mayo near Lough Conn. But, here in Cork, instead of a lough, these homes are near the Rochestown estuary and Lough Mahon and the late 1800s gothic house and lands Bloomfield by Woodbrook, just south of the tidal region close to the 1990s-built octagonal St Patrick’s Church, the second to serve the burgeoning Douglas and Rochestown suburbs of the day.
It’s a four-bed bed detached home lots to recommend taking it on as a modernising project, starting with size at 2,000 sq ft, it’s already a four-bed, has mature and very private grounds of c 0.3 of an acre, and has a detached garage of a further 450 sq ft, with attic.
Guiding it at €875,000, Ms Stokes says in some ways it was ahead of its time with good, open plan style living areas, some double aspect, several have fireplaces, and most connect externally across the rear via a covered patio area of c 400 sq ft.
This sheltered patio, with slabbed floor and wood-sheeted ceiling under a tiled roof enables rooms to open up in all weathers, could facilitate barbecues, games and perhaps indicate extension potential also, it’s suggested.
Apart from a good spread of reception rooms – living/dining, kitchen/dining, family room and den, a guest WC, utility, and four first floor bedrooms one of which is en suite with a royal blue suite, with gold taps and trim, while the family bathroom has recently been upgraded Bofeenaun has oil central heating, a C3 BER and significant extra potential for upgrades, extensions, garage conversion etc.
VERDICT: There’s an unusual cluster of homes of all shapes, sizes and styles in and around Brookfield.
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