'Tis well for you at Sundays Well €710k Carrigbeg

Period Leeside home facing UCC's Mardyke sport brought to a B3 BER 

Leeside Carrigbeg House, left of pic, is at the foot of Sundays Well Road close to the remarkably rescued Lisheen (red house), saved after years of dereliction. Sherry FitzGeral seek €710,000 for the nearby Carrigbeg

Sundays Well, Cork City
€710,000
Size	150 sq m (1,615 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	3
BER	B3

Find your leisure spot on Leeside

IT’S almost 15 years since Carrigbeg House last appeared in these pages, but that’s a mere drop in the ocean (or, more locally the River Lee) in the history of this erstwhile home that has indeed seen many changes.

Carrigbeg House, centre (right  hand side of pair of semis)

The period era semi-detached Carrigbeg House looks Edwardian, or late Victorian like some of its neighbours on Cork’s Sundays Well Rd, just on the city side of the elegant three-arch Wellington Bridge…sorry now Thomas Davis bridge: See, even the bridges and their nomenclature move with the times.

View towards Thomas Davis Bridge, County Hall  and Lee Fields

However, the owners of Carrigbeg House — one of whom has a background in architecture — reckon from perusing old maps and photos, that the original house here on this water-facing plot was a two-storey Georgian house, built around 1800, “and that the original footprint incorporated the semi-detached property next door,” they say.

But then, around the early 1900s, the house was divided into two and an extra storey was added to make for what’s now a three-storey Carrigbeg House, home to a pair of semi-detached building.

They explain: “That’s why the exterior detailing is more Victorian, while the internal heights and proportions are Georgian era.”

Victorian style ornate porch

The family bought here back in 2010, absolute slump times for market values post-crash, when the right-hand side of Carrigbeg House came for sale as a renovation project (although the report of the time referred more to “redecoration needed”), with a €450,000 price tag via agents Sherry FitzGerald.

Maybe surveys and investigations revealed a larger scale of works needed, as the Price Register shows it selling later in 2010 for a more manageable €315,000.

Carrigbeg in 2010

That’s when its buyers rolled their sleeves up.

They got stuck into rather deeper renovations, first stripping back all the external walls to bare stone and adding high performance insulation.

They also opened through from the kitchen to the living and dining room, creating a deeper, more open plan area at ground floor.

Overhead, they altered what had been a long first floor reception room — splitting it into two double bedrooms to the front, each with views over the River Lee (this level had two bedrooms here before, one of them en suite).

Top bedroom

Then, going further upwards, they created a top floor bathroom under characterful sloping ceilings, with a free standing bath, along with a separate, large shower unit, while a walk-in wardrobe was added to the top floor’s master bedroom.

Upgraded bathrooms

This level also has further bedroom with double aspect.

More “out of sight” work included removing timber window lintels, replacing them with concrete ones.

All the floors were taken up, the joists repaired where needed, and insulation added to the cavity between all floors, all helping to gain this period home a very respectable BER of B3 — meaning it also qualifies for a lower rate “green” mortgage if buyers so wish to avail of it.

Unmistakably Leeside

Who’ll buy now? Carrigbeg House today carries a €710,000 AMV, quoted by agents Ann O’Mahony and Tirza Hourihan of Sherry FitzGerald, who say it’s a top family home, in a great city setting, south-facing overlooking the River Lee, within a walk of the city centre and with UCC even closer.

It faces the Mardyke’s UCC playing grounds, running track, GAA and rugby pitches, plus swimming pool complex of UCC, just upriver of Fitzgerald’s Park, within a hundred metres of the gracefully-arched limestone Thomas Davis Bridge. That bridge is now coming up on its own 200th anniversary, originally called Wellington Bridge, built at a time when Sundays Well and the Lee Rd was coming into increasing favour with the city’s merchant and professional (ie monied) classes — along with likes of Blackrock and Montenotte Crosbie family home sale this week.

Merchant Prints? Oaklodge, Cork's Crosbie family home, is for sale in elevated Montenotte

To address the buyer question — it’s as likely today to be a professional, such as a merchant or a tech type, given the proximity of the Apple campus directly overhead, to the north crowning Hollyhill, home to many thousands of jobs.

On the other hand, it may well be a medic. Those in the health sector can walk, bike, or otherwise make the short journeys to the Bon Secours, the Mercy hospital campus, or to the CUH a slight bit further at Wilton.

Alternatively, it could just be someone who wants to live in close proximity to the city centre, within a pleasant walk — either via the rise and fall of Sundays Well, or down the Mardyke — with the Lee Fields as both green and “blue” outdoors space almost on the property’s doorstep.

Then, there’s the simple pleasure of the river aspect across the road — with the odd kayakers out training or negotiating the weirs by the bridge, or passing swans more frequently.

In the broader picture, there’s almost a timelessness to the setting, or at least a sense of changes coming at their own pace, such as the UCC Mardyke evolution, the spread of the college campus, and the new homes building now going on via the Land Development Agency at St Kevin’s and Our Lady’s former hospitals.

South-facing

Carrigbeg House still holds the name of a property from earlier times too, irrespective of how much of what is here now, how it looks and feels and dates to a Georgian original, and how much has changed in its further chapters.

Across the road is a classic ‘Lazarus’ house, the red-hued Lisheen, a period waterside home at the foot of Sundays Well hill, once derelict, precarious, and at risk of total loss for decades, but now rescued and restored to a very high standard after major investment.

Carrigbeg House, and its “other half”, are visually part of a charming run of homes of many different sizes, types, and periods — from detacheds to terraces and pairs, apartments in small collections, and more.

Access to it is either via a pedestrian gate on Sundays Well Rd, or — for cars — it’s past just a small number of apartments in one quite modern three-storey building picking up on roof and apex features of Carrigbeg House.

This entry point is at the road’s junction with Hyde Park, a cul de sac lane running behind the housing mix on this river-facing stretch.

VERDICT: Carrigbeg House is pretty much all about the siting and setting, the river aspect, and the upgraded quality now of a B3-rated family home.

The fact that it has little outdoor space or gardens, other than its gravelled front and side will suit some down to the ground, but may rule it out for others who want traditional lawns and the like.