€495k Great Island home has an ace up its sleeve

Proximity to tennis and croquet club paid dividends with  US college scholarships for daughters - no raquet

Young Tom Ahern playing tennis at Rushbrooke Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club in 2021 on the first day of re-opening after Level 5 Restrictions were eased.

Rushbrooke, Cork Harbour
€495,000
Size	325 sq m (3,400 sq ft_
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	3
BER	BER: Exempt

WELL, the location at Great Island’s No 2 Rushbrooke Terrace proved ‘ace’ in more ways than one for the family who moved to Cork two decades ago – two of the four children reared here managed to get sports scholarships to the US, as a result of having the highly regarded Rushbrooke Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club within a short walk of their own front door.

2 Rushbrooke Terrace is near the commuter rail station on Great Island 

The physically engaged family, with clear sporting prowess and talented at tennis especially, originally have links to Canada, and had lived for a number of years in Dublin before making the move to Cobh/Rushbrooke in 2005.

No 2, left

They did renovation works to this Victorian era three-storey home in stages, with some of the most recent work being replacement sash windows on most of the mid-1800s semi-detached home’s façade (excluding in the bay window), as well as wiring, plumbing and creating a new main bathroom with feature free-standing slipper style bath by a fireplace.

With adult daughters and two sons, one heading into the Leaving Cert stage and another eyeing up a career shift to his artist father’s native Canada and Vancouver, there’s a trade-down move now on the cards, and No 2 by the start of the terrace/run of pairs of semi-ds is freshly up for sale, listed with a €495,000 AMV with agent Paul Fenton of Sherry FitzGerald.

That’s for a well-set Victorian semi-d with pedestrian access on its doorstep to Rushbrooke rail station, on the Cork-Cobh commuter rail line, as well as being close to the tennis and croquet club within a short stroll in the other direction. 

Through the hoops. Ann Whitty playing croquet at Rushbrooke Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club.

That club is one of Ireland’s oldest, with roots back to 1870 thanks to the presence of the then-British navy who brought a certain wealth and lifestyle rigour to the Cork harbour port, making it a hugely important place for transatlantic shipping, military/naval defences and convoys, and fostering and funding much of the island’s finest Victorian architecture.

Fine touches

Sherry Fitz’s Mr Fenton describes the terrace overlooking Monkstown the harbour and the former Verolme yards as elegant and says the vendors kept much of the originality as they did works inside and outside.

A lot of the ‘heavy lifting’ has been done, and it has three bathrooms, one per level to serve the five bedrooms (two on the top floor, three midships) and daytime rooms, but next/new owners will want to put their own finessing and decorative mark on the place once they get ownership.

It’s physically in pretty good shape, but things like resanding and refinishing floors, gently tackling the original encaustic floor tiles at the lower/garden level and choosing new colours will give it a fresh lift, while one of the more interesting rooms (one of two interlinked ground level reception rooms) has kept the narrow strip varnished timber T&G panelling on walls.

Cobh is around the corner

Likely dating to a decade or two before the current owners moved in (it has been used lately as a painting studio), it’s a look that hasn’t yet come back into fashion, and possibly detracts from the attractions of the original white marble fireplace and well-proportioned bay window….

The setting is on Bunker Hill, just above the skew bridge in Rushbrooke which was itself largely developed by the likes of the Smith Barry (Fota) and Midleton family estates from the 1860s, away from the busyness of the piers and jetties at Cobh (then Queenstown).

The Price Register shows just three resales with a Rushbrooke Terrace address, none since 2019, and at prices from €280,000 to €385,000, with some work currently being done to No 3, while No 1 had major work done to it since it sold in 2018.

Mid-level entry

No 2 is entered at mid-level with a walk-through link, and has side external access with steps, enclosed yard, south-west facing terrace/patio and sloping grounds, with mature trees fringing.

VERDICT: Lots of work was done to No 2 by the current owners, but it now could do with a fresh burst of enthusiasm, in the gardens and interiors but viewers will factor that into their chances to get a period era semi-d with water views, plus a super-handy rail commuter station on its doorstep,