Channelling Tuscany in Cork's Carrigrohane for €975,000

Bracken Lodge took the architectural spirit of the kind of homes you might spy on an Italian hillside.

Carrigrohane, Cork
€975,000
Size	291 sq m (3,132 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	4
BER	B3

Instead of donning fedoras and heading for the Med as card-carrying retirees, the couple that commissioned the building of Bracken Lodge made sure it channelled the architectural spirit of the kind of homes you might spy on a Tuscan hillside.

To help them to do this, Alan and Betty Haughton commissioned architect Walter Stansfield, who designed the property to track the sun’s angle of travel around the site.

The upshot is a floorplan that ignores convention and a house that faces in many directions, but banded around a central courtyard that faces directly south.

In a world where “unique home” is a much-abused term, Bracken Lodge is the real deal.

The house first appeared in these pages in 2011, nearly two decades after it was built by the Haughtons, of whom Alan was an international tennis player, Davis Cup and Wimbledon competitor, and also a member of the timber merchant family, Brooks Haughton.

Bracken Lodge was essentially the couple’s “retirement” home, less than half the size of the Georgian property in whose beautiful woodland grounds it was built, Rocklodge House, where the Haughtons had raised their own family, just past Healy’s Bridge, in Carrigrohane.

The couple had about a dozen years to enjoy Bracken Lodge before Betty passed away in 2007, followed by Alan in 2011 at the age of 93.

It came to market the same year and was unoccupied for a time, before being bought in 2013 by a couple enthralled by the magical woodland setting — deep down in a hollow, yet high above a steep ravine — with secluded Lee Valley views.

“We were living in Bishopstown and we were considering extending, but when we weighed up the value of extending versus coming here, it was a no-brainer,” the man of the house says.

The Price Register shows the property sold for €490,000 in 2013.

You could scour Bishopstown for a setting like this one, but you will not find it.

The long, winding, downhill drive to the house, which is hidden from the road, is a woodland dell, vibrant with bluebells this time of year.

When you pull up in front of the house, the garage is on the level but the land drops down on one side. The house follows the contours, so while it might seem like a bungalow to anyone sitting in its sun-kissed courtyard, there’s a whole lot more going on down below in this split-level home.

The new owners did nothing to it for two years. The woman of the house says her husband advised that they “first needed to live in it and understand it”.

Although she was impatient to get going, she heeded the advice of her engineer husband.

The biggest change they made was to the entry level floor, moving the kitchen to the opposite end of the house, where there were two bedrooms.

“The living space was divided either side of the central staircase and, around 2017, we did a straight swap between the kitchen/utility and the two bedrooms. It was a brave decision, but it was the right one,” the owners say.

The upshot was the consolidation of the main daytime accommodation on one side of the house, creating an open-plan kitchen/dining/living room with 7kW wood-burning stove and double doors to the courtyard patio.

This large room opens into a gorgeous dining/music room with bay window overlooking the patio and gardens.

Behind it, to the rear, a huge room with a fabulous array of windows and a large, raised fireplace looks out over the woodland valley.

Two double bedrooms, each with en suite, are at the opposite side of the staircase.

As they’re on the level, it’s an exercise in future-proofing.

Two more double bedrooms on the ground floor share a bathroom. One is exceptionally big and adjoins a kitchenette.

“My dad stayed with us for the best part of 12 months, and it was very useful to have this room,” the owner says.

The main benefit of switching the kitchen position — as well as catching the morning sun — is enjoyment of the magnificent gardens.

The owners have done a sterling job, picking up on the passion of the Haughtons, whose astute plant and shrub selection included, inter alia, azaleas, rhododendrons, acers and magnolia trees.

The shrubbery rises in banks above the courtyard patio, ringed by beautiful stonework and cut through with steps.

A restored teak pergola at one side of the courtyard adds to the villa feel. There’s an earthiness to this 291 sq ft home, of solid oak parquet and Juncker oak floors, of teak doors and teak staircase and mahogany kitchen.

A stream runs along the boundary of its more than four acre site, down into the ravine and the Shournagh river.

As selling agent Trevor O’Sullivan, of Lisney Sotheby’s, points out, it’s as secluded and tranquil a site as you will find this close to Cork city.

It’s just 12 minutes to Cork University Hospital and about half a dozen medics have already been to view it.

They’ll have a tour too of the garage, where a giant wood gasification boiler operates with a level of efficiency that could rival an operating theatre.

A great, big, eco-friendly machine, it cost around €20,000 and has made the existing oil boiler largely redundant — albeit it was recently serviced for the next owners.

Heating is zoned, which is good news for a home this size, where there are four zones.

The next owners are looking at paying close to €1m for this truly singular Carrigrohane property, as the guide price is €975,000.

“In my 18 years in the business, I don’t remember ever recall coming across a house like this one,” Mr O’Sullivan says.

The vendors say the overarching message is that the house is “an ecological treasure, immersed in nature, and also a very functional home”.

“It’s been a very difficult decision to leave, but there’s a job opportunity in Limerick with the opening of a new office, and so we are re-locating to Clare,” the man of the house says.

Bracken Lodge has been a haven, they say, particularly during the pandemic.

VERDICT: Already hitting its target market of hospital consultants. Tech professionals may also feature given proximity to Dell/EMC in Ballincollig or Apple in Hollyhill.