Family-built home on Glounthaune hillside comes to market at €750k

Hands-on couple built in 1998, did the gardens, later extended and kept regular upgrades to walk-in order €750k Glounthaune home

High on a hill: No 11 Tower Hill is one of 29 homes on serviced sites by historic 1840s Fr Mathew Tower in Cork. Pictures: H-Pix

Kilcoolishal, Glounthaune
€750,000
Size	197 sq m (2,180 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	4
BER	C1

THE family at 11 Tower Hill, under the watchful eye of the 1840s-built Fr Mathew Tower in a sentinel position east of Cork city at Glounthaune, seem to know every square foot of their home, and every cubic metre of their gardens and grounds.

Back in 1988, they engaged local contractors Bride View Homes to build a one-off home on an elevated site at Kilcoolishal, where 29 serviced sites were allowed to be developed in the former grounds of the stone folly tower built to commemorate the Apostle of Temperance.

That tower,  visible from various points  east of the city, Blackrock etc, now has a wrap-around private home sidled up to it, while the grounds have an array of one-off homes, some very substantial indeed, and most are on warm sites, facing south and sloping, with harbour views.

Fr Mathew Tower 

Homes here are hugely sought-after, notes estate agent Lawrence Sweeney of Savills, who has sold a handful here in the last five years and now lists No 11, with a €750,000 price guide, and it’s in walk-in order.

It has been a much-loved, full-time family home and will be again in new hands, he promises, noting his vendors are trading down and will go new home hunting as cash buyers when No 11 transacts in coming months.

The house-proud departing owners bought their site from Loughmahon Properties (clue to the view in that name, it spans the spire of Cobh cathedral to the east, across Passage West, Rochestown and Lough Mahon to the west) and Bride View built to “a ranch-style model with the emphasis on functionality and flexibility,” they say and recall using Loftus Plant Hire and Dineen Plant Hire to create four tiers on the site’s slope, with three of the four level and “this involved extensive excavations, and we saved the topsoil from the excavations for lawns and flower beds.” 

Mint order

They also kept rock/sandstone from the one-acre site for low natural stone walls around the gardens, with gravel paths and paving created over following years .

“It took a number of years to complete. Both of us are keen gardeners and we spent a huge amount of our spare time working in the garden to achieve its current look,” the couple with adult offspring now detail, and inside perimeter beech and oak trees are Acers, weeping birch, Canadian and Japanese maples, rose garden, flowering cherry blossoms, shrubs, and flowers in season. Right now, beeches are turning copper and russet, and new occupants can expect a springtime welcome from the likes of bluebells and daffodils.

The tiered grounds include a glasshouse and seating areas, feature shrub/hedging, brick patio, large parking/turning area, and to the rear is a section with a 6.5m x 5m detached garage, ideal for upgrading to studio, already quite comfortable and which still houses a snooker table for all budding pool sharks, and Hurricane Higgins. And, there’s a very good home here too, let it be noted.

Extended more

recently by Sean Walsh of Star Homes at the western end to add a new living area with bay window, there’s now almost 2,200 sq ft in all, with five bedrooms off to the right, two of which are en suite and upgraded.

The living areas are linked, with a bright sitting room/dining room linked to the kitchen, with slight bay window, and a green enamel Stanley stove fitted into a brick surround (another room has a Hunter Telford stove with back boiler).

There are second and even third reception room options behind the kitchen to the back of the house, where there are further sit-out areas, with patios supplied by Ballygarvan Stonecraft.

Internal surfaces under foot are Junkers oak and internal doors are mahogany, while the oak kitchen units came from The Old Pine Stores in Passage West, and oak built-ins in bedrooms came from Caseys.

VERDICT: A top quality property where it’s evident pennies were never pinched