Midleton's €850k Knocklaun House restoration aims for top price bar

Midleton restoration of 1870s house aims for top price reward for work, plus there's eleven (cheaper) new builds to follow

Knocklaun House is on Midleton's Cork Road. Estate agent Miah McGrath guides the top home from €850,000. How high might it go?

Midleton, East Cork
€850,000
Size	206 sq m (2,200 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	A2

GIVEN the comparative regularity with which the €1 million price barrier is now being breached for top family homes in and around Cork city, and county, for both new and old, it’s somewhat surprising to realise that a town as affluent as East Cork’s Midleton hasn’t yet had a home make that sort of money.

Now A2 rated Knocklaun is upgraded from top to bottom and extended out the back

Strip away any additional value going with some of the town’s best period homes (such as Charleston House which shows on the Price Register at €880,000 back in 2018 minus its residential development land,) and the only home making ‘the Big Note’ since ‘the Crash’ was East Ferry Lodge, on the waters of Cork harbour, making €1.215m almost a decade ago now, in 2015.

There have to be homes worth this figure in and around Midleton, even if they haven’t come to market in generations? 

Knocklaun as it stood only a few years ago

But, in the interim, what of the fortunes at Knocklaun House, a detached home with some heritage, originally built around 1870 according to the National Inventory/Buildings of Ireland website, more recently resurrected and reborn, and freshly up for sale in as good a shape as any trade-up family might ever want.

It’s priced at €850,000 by estate agent Miah McGrath of McCarthy & McGrath, and while he doesn’t say it, he may feel it may tip upwards towards the six figure benchmark given its quality of execution.

Sort of a flagship for a scheme of 11 new builds on the Cork Road, just at the start of the road into town from the N25/Midleton bypass, and about half way between there, the relief road, and Midleton Park Hotel, this top home has just been finished by East Cork builder Donal O’Brien, who generally does one-offs in the region.

Bright future

Here, Mr O’Brien acquired a detached house on decent /mature’ grounds, originally offered on 1.7 acres at €490,000 with dual access and development potential flagged, in need of upgrades.

He saw the scope in both house and land, did a thorough overhaul, extension and energy efficiency upgrade, moving it up from rock-bottom (it was BER exempt ’cos of its age) to an A2, and has ground works in now for his 11 next houses to the back.

Not knocked: Knocklaun will have eleven new neighbours

He used the services of Castlemartyr-based architect James Bourke who has a niche in conservation work, and then he has more latterly also started building 11 new, A-rated homes to the rear, comprising four detacheds, four semi-ds plus a short terraced of three more houses, for what’s going to be a dozen modern homes in all here, with a convenient Circle K almost directly across the road for convenience shopping’s sake.

Glass act

Very much a one-off, though, the revamped Knocklaun House (it’s also spelled elsewhere as Knocklawn) is a 2,200 sq ft four-bed detached home with enviable ground floor living spaces, washed in light and with contrasts of some old, original build features such as a limestone and brick wall in the long hallway, sand-blasted and repointed with lime mortar.

Old meets new

The old house had a compact front porch, one now recreated in its mid section with pitched slate roof and glazing on three sides, done by skilled joiner John Fitzgerald. It’s close to a replica, albeit without the five small, ornate glass panels at head height which had been in the old Mark 1 version a century or so ago.

Windows in the existing/original two storey build are now triple gazed, with high performance alu-clad windows and doors in the back quarter extension, while the front is flanked at ground level with bipartite or pairs of one-over-one sashes.

The new roof is natural slate, each with pin hooks, while down at ground the original limestone step has been cleaned and reinstated.

The ground floor flat roof extension and projecting window more out of sight and wrapping around the back are topped in dark pressed metal, very 21st century vogue, and brick there is ‘Marziale’ from Wienerberger, sourced from Dublin-based brick and stone specialists Out Haus (outhaus.ie).

Also very much in vogue is the burned larch timber panelling treatment on the back of the bike shed, while the grounds are landscaped and fully greened in already, with design and delivery overseen by Liam Kelly: outdoor seating areas are finished in special tiles, from Harding Stone Yard in Kilkenny, the drive is finished in Donegal quartz , access is via electric gates (security cameras are here too) and the boundary pillar caps are from Nicholl Plaster Mouldings in Belfast.

Internally, Knocklaun House is bang up to spec with underfloor heating downstairs, rads upstairs, fueled by a air to water Daikin heat pump, with Aer Haus heat recovery/ventilation.

Rooms off the hall/vestibule with its feature exposed and repointed stone wall include a sitting room, sun room, playroom, home office, utility and plant room, shower room/guest WC and very large open plan kitchen/living/dining room.

A kitchen isn’t fitted: the choice of what style to go for, old like the house or new like the open plan/linked room it will go into will be left to the new owner’s tastes.

Above, one of the four double bedrooms is en suite, there’s a main family bathroom and sanitary ware is from the likes of Hansgrohe, Duravit and Axor, plus the attic is lit and floored for storage throughout.

VERDICT: Those looking to do up an older era home themselves could do well to have a look at how Knocklaun was stitched back together for an easy on the eye mix of old and new. Those with €900k to €1m to spend right now and who want to spare themselves the hassle of doing the work can just bid, and buy. The rest of Midleton will wait to see if this is “ our million euro house.”