An Nead rises above Cork City with stunning views and smart design for €1.25m

This Tivoli home has space, style, and seclusion but it’s the spectacular views that really grab attention

Sun-soaking An Nead ('The Nest') is on 0.5 acres at Tivoli Estate. Michael O'Donovan of Savills guides the top home at €1.25 million

Tivoli Estate, Cork City
€1.25m
Size	345 sq m  (3,820 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	4
BER	A3

CALLED after the Irish word for nest, the family home An Nead is set up at the tippy-top of the Tivoli Estate in Cork city and is an eye in the sky, in more ways than one.

First up, its elevation several hundred feet above sea level and the River Lee, facing the Marina, gives it quite the sweep of city and Cork harbour views, east down over Blackrock Castle towards Great Island, and back west towards the city centre and its evolving docklands.

Bird's eye view from Tivoli eyrie called An Nead

As it faces directly south, An Nead also gets sun all day, with unobstructed light from the crack of dawn to when the skies pinken in in the evenings, with windows very deliberately and judiciously placed to get sun up and sun down, and even to draw the light through its long axis, with vertical openings placed for sequential and through-views.

Lens-like eye in the sky in the main bedroom

Then, there’s the massive, unavoidable ‘eye in the sky’, the large oculus or circular first floor window in An Nead’s main bedroom, which inevitably draws you to approach and to gaze out from this eyrie, an enchanting form of architectural hypnosis... ‘look into my eye.’

Front or back?

That gaze-holding window in a façade apex, about 1.5 metres in diameter, is just one of the features in this home of window placing which, as you go around both inside and out, you quickly appreciate is asymmetrical, there is no regular rhythm or symmetry in any façade like there might typically be in, say Georgian design. Instead, the window placements follow the deliberate floor plan and room and seating functions, varying from the huge sliders by the kitchen and dining table to slender vertical ones in functional or north-facing rooms.

Mixed materials

Others are wide but low-slung, so that they only really open up the views to the garden when seated on sofas in the side-by-side gable-end reception rooms, or in the free-standing bath in the main bedroom suite, so that the engrossing views past Blackrock to where the harbour widens out are savoured while having a luxurious soak.

Take the plunge, spa style

It doesn’t take long, even on first visit, to realise that low-key aesthetics are every bit as important as functionality in this broad, two storey home, with over 3,800 sq ft delivered under the low-pitch membrane roof, which has odd angles and gable apexes, projections, set-backs, folds, twists and turns.

It’s a bit like an origami exercise when viewed from various angles and, especially, from on high: a bird’s eye view really shows the individuality of the design.

Yet, for all of that. It was a relatively straightforward build, done in less than a year with hardly a change or variation in the design from the time it was agreed between clients and architect — it was all agreed in advance, just about every detail was considered from the outset in consultation with a committed client, and an architect prepared to think outside the box.

Serene

The architect in this case is Steve McClew, who trained in Glasgow’s Mackintosh School of Architecture, later worked in Scotland, Paris, and in London, including projects in Shoreditch as its cool reputation was on the rise, and he’s been in Cork since 2005, in private practice.

Now Kinsale-based, McClew’s work has featured in these pages before, most notably when he delivered a stunning one-off circular home in the city’s St Luke’s area, off Gardiner’s Hill, on a very large walled garden site.

 It’s one that immediately hoved into sight from various points of the city thanks to its shape, red windows, and cedar shingle cladding: landscaping and the passage of time has meant it’s less and less easy to spot from across the city now.

Steve McClew, architect at a Gardiner's Hill project in 2010. Pic Denis Scannell

In contrast, even though An Nead is high up in the Tivoli Estate, it’s not at all obvious it’s there if looking across the River Lee from promenades on the Marina and other points southside, due to its particular placing on its half-acre site, also due to a tree line of mixed planting, including spindly pines, along its southern boundary.

It’s one of about 40 houses, all different, in the Tivoli Estate, with one-off homes cropping up here since the early to mid-1900s in this cluster based around tight turns and chicanes leading upwards from Trafalgar Hill and the Lower Glanmire Road, with the expanse of views broadening as each tier is rounded.

An Nead is on the top, short section of the Tivoli Estate, with a half a dozen or so neighbours (plus an as yet undeveloped site, with the last application on it back in 2005) and all are sizeable family homes, in a variety of styles, several of which whisper ‘architect-designed.’ 

Just on the city side is Woodlands, modern homes built on old Crosbie family lands over 20 years ago, off Montenotte’s Middle Glanmire Road by Ennismore, while Woodhill Park and Falcon Hill are among the other clusters of detached houses also reached off Lovers Walk, above Trafalgar Hill and the Tivoli skew bridge.

Nesting instinct

These are the houses that grab attention when walking along Cork’s upgraded and recently pedestrianised (thanks, covid!) Marina, admired for their variety and the glint in their windows as they catch the sun, basking in light from their south-aspected and leafy grounds. Little wonder that “pick your favourite house” is a pastime regularly embraced by promenaders on the Marina, or from the catchment by Páirc Ui Chaoimh and the Atlantic Pond.

That might all seem nearly a world away from the private setting of An Nead…but you know where you are when there’s a big game or a gig at the Páirc: Tivoli houses are well-known spots for parties for family and friends and free music wafting upwards when the stadium rocks.

Planning was granted back in 2017 for An Nead, as a part single storey and part two storey family home with a 350 sq ft roofed over car-port, where the main house section meets a flat roofed wing to the left, capable of being used as a self-contained wing perhaps for a family

member, as a home office with facilities or as a gym/play room.

It’s a very adaptable floor plan, as an adjunct to An Nead’s main area, which has at its far end a double aspect living room next to a double aspect den/playroom, with a third reception room also off the kitchen/dining area.

There’s an immediate Wow! factor just on entry, with a lofty, double-height hall and stairwell, with a large, asymmetric window over the front door and its glazed side pane.

You’ll never be caught for light in this well-considered home, with a mezzanine corridor above, adding to the sense of space and volume that you can only get in a relatively sizeable build.

The first floor has four bedrooms, including the scene-setting main with its oculus window, high ceilings and intriguingly-pitched ceilings and covered RSJ sections; this suite also has a large walk-in robe/dressing room on one side, and, on the other, a private, spa quality bathroom, with tucked-away shower enclosure and a free-standing bath next to the look-out window. Given the house’s elevation, there’s no need for blinds or curtains. Nor are there any on the circular window: the occupants embrace the light and vistas, the sight of trees waving in windows and passing birdlife.

Back across the landing/void over the hall, a very large and immaculately-tiled family bathroom with huge shower screen serves the other three bedrooms, plus there’s a large walk-in cupboard with access to the heat recovery/ventilation system, which the occupants say works a treat as a place to hang up and dry clothes.

Two of the living rooms have wood-burning stoves. One is double-sided, positioned between the living room and dining area, by the full-height hall, and was made by Romotop, sourced from Flame by Design. The other is by Irish company Henley, via Cork Builders Providers.

An Nead has a walk-in pantry off the kitchen in one direction, and a utility with walk out to a drying area on the other, along with laundry appliances at hip height —very ergonomic — with masses of storage options in these services rooms.

All built-ins and the kitchen, which has a sleek dark finish, is from Cork company NewWood Kitchens, with twin Neff ovens, island and seating space, with a corner window, cleverly placed for early morning sun. In fact, three windows were very deliberately placed in a line so that they have clear sight through one another, through kitchen/dining sections, to that shaft of light, like the domestic equivalent of Newgrange.

The selection and quality of lightingjumps out in just about every room, with a mix from large globes (the one in the double height hall is a bit like a puffy dandelion gone to seed) woven wire, in a mix of materials and shapes from curves to helixes, sourced from far and wide, locally and online, while heating is via air to water, delivered underfloor at ground level and via radiators upstairs.

Windows, smooth running sliders and doors come from high-end brand Carlson, and window sills are in cut Kilkenny blue limestone, done by Eoin O’Connell of O’Connell Stone, while the façade around the front door is rougher limestone, also from Kilkenny; rainwater goods and downpipes are zinc, while the main roof in all its shapes and angles is in standing seam-style rubberized membrane.

Adding to the contrast of build materials is the use of larch sheeting on the entrance overhang, on the ceiling of the sheltered car port, and over the sliders on the southern façade, while internal and external painting was by done by Paddy McCarthy.

The builder who delivered it all with aplomb was Brian Malone of Malone Construction, done and dusted within a year from start to finish, with nary a variation from the drawings he was first presented with, so thorough was the brief from the owners day one.Even though it’s a busy home, it presents now as if it’s brand new, with an A3 BER, and slab floor at first floor level, from Cronins Concrete, for hush and solidity.

Tiling at ground level, in the kitchen, utility and splashback came from Limerick’s Tile Shed, while lighting came from years of collecting, and a keen eye, including finds on DoneDeal, HomeSense, Cork Lighting and online from lampandlight.ie The overall aesthetic comes from a good eye, with items brought back from travels and work in New Zealand, furniture made by a father —“furniture for me is collection of memories” — says the owner, with art from family, friends, and admired artists.

Furniture is a mix of new finds, sentimental items from parents and grandparents, upcycling, and stores like Caseys (dining table and chairs), HomeSense, EZ Living, and Re:Story in Limerick’s Milk Market.

Architect Steve McClew says the double height foyer frames garden and southerly views, with high level glazing on the north for a soft natural light, while the stairs placing, balcony edge and circulation “gives the entrance a dynamic sense of movement.”

South-facing walls are subtly stepped, “while projecting rooms are designed with multiple windows, capturing light throughout the day as the sun moves across the sky.”

Foyer is double height

Looking up inside, the origami-inspired ceilings engage the eye “mirroring the shape of the roof, boosting the height of the rooms and making full use of the upper level’s potential. Each bedroom offers unique ceiling geometry to enhance the sense of space and light,” says McClew.

An Nead is freshly up for sale for relocating owners. It immediately impressed estate agent Michel O’Donovan of Savills, who says it’s a superb family home and really well designed for all stages of family life, with lots of space and functionality. And of course, that’s all topped off by its elevated setting above the city, with views for miles in every direction, through the treeline to the south and down to the harbour as the Lee goes on its wending way to meet the sea a few more miles downriver.

Montenotte House is sale agreed via Savills,  Cork, likely to have made close to its €1.15m guide

He guides at €1.25 million (it comes on the back of a recent Savills’ ‘sale agreed’ on the period home Montenotte House for around its €1.15m guide) and he reckons it will catch the eye of proud Corkonians, relocators, and returnees, with little of this space and quality anywhere around the city, ready to go.

In its top deck setting, An Nead sits on a site of about a half an acre, with secure boundaries and space for ball kicking, goals and games to the front and to the side, with lots of parking. The best of it is in the car port and bike store which means easy loading and unloading of shopping, sports gear, passengers and pets irrespective of the weather and, hey, no frost or ice to scrape off windscreens on cold and frosty mornings.

VERDICT: Cork’s St Luke’s Cross, Montenotte, and Tivoli are having quite a moment in the sun, with guests in the Montenotte Hotel’s award-winning woodland suites raving about the city vistas. Serene-set An Nead has those views, and more, for keeps.