Time to turn the page at €1.1m Glenesk after five decades of family life

Glenesk, a 1920s family home filled with character and history, is now for sale on a prime Douglas Road site

Glenesk's large drive: the home is on a valuable 0.3 acre of ground. Pictures: Ryan Lynch

Douglas Road, Cork City
€1.1 million
Size	227 sq m (2,443 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	2
BER	f

AFTER 50 years in family ownership, it’s time for new occupants at Glenesk, a distinctive detached dormer home, at the back of a large and deep 0.3-acre garden on Cork’s main Douglas Road.

Built in the late 1920s, Glenesk is in good company, set as it is at the corner of ‘old’ Endsleigh Park, with the ‘new’ 1960s Endsleigh Estate on its city side, and is within a few hundred metres of Douglas village: in Cork terms, it’s a ‘top’ address.

Detached Glenesk,  Endsleigh,  on Cork city's  Douglas Road is located in top company

It was the setting and garden that attracted the last buyers — with Co Cavan and Limerick roots — who cared barely a jot for how Cork people rated addresses: they saw what they liked, and simply went for it.

The man of the house worked in the fashion and clothing business, having been reared in a family shop in Cavan, and went on to be one of the key founders and directors of a certain Irish multinational company with 450 stores in Ireland, the UK, Europe and the US, employing 75,000.

He retired from it over 30 years ago, after years travelling the globe — today still, Glenesk is filled with items he bought or had shipped home from the east and far east, as he acted as a buyer, negotiator, source-er and as the eyes and ears on the international front for the chain as it then grew to its first few dozen stores.

The couple who happily fetched up in Cork (they moved here from nearby Hettyfield for the larger garden) and refused to leave the southern city for easy Dublin HQ access, reared four children, three daughters and a son, at Glenesk. It’s now an executor sale being handled by the next generation, after the woman of the house passed away last year, predeceased by her husband who died in 2019.

The regard they had for happy school days and growing up near so many shops, services, and amenities (tales are told of the old diminutive Katie Daly’s shop which stood across the Douglas Road) is evident today as it comes for sale with Dennis Guerin and Chloe Reidy of Frank V Murphy & Co, guided on its May market launch at €1.1m.

At that, this Douglas sale comes hot on the heels of Blair Glaisse inside in Endsleigh Park, a 1930s ‘Tudor’ style timber-beamed home of 207 sq m which launched here a month ago at €1.3m.

Raise the bar?

Also an early summer launch nearby was Moyard, a 1970s bungalow on 0.45 of an acre off Woodview, near the year’s top Cork suburban offer so far, Kendalsbrae, also with a Woodview address, dating to the 1920s and on a remarkable 2.25 acres, with a €2.95m AMV. There’s yet another good ‘un to come in the next few weeks too, off the south Douglas Road....

Even though this home, Glenesk, has an Endsleigh address (and a pedestrian gate from its east-facing patio to Endsleigh Park) its entrance is onto the main Douglas Road: that gives it even more cachet, reckons agent Dennis Guerin who suggests that as the site is so deep, with house well to the back, there may be some development potential here too.

As it stands, it’s already a fine home and a good size at over 2,400 sq ft, with an unusual floor plan on both levels: it’s anything but symmetric at least, and the ground floor rooms pretty much flow around one another in a circle for great circulation, with homely kitchen/breakfast room, big utility, side and main halls, guest WC, and large lounge with feature fireplace in marble and hardwood (complete with happy looking large Buddha, one of the many oriental treasures and decorative quirks dotted about, with a double aspect and a west-facing bay window.

One of the five bedrooms

There are four bedrooms above, up an attractive off-centre staircase, plus main bathroom, with an optional fifth bedroom/home office, whilst room shapes in cases are dictated by the distinctive Dutch dormer or mansard roof style.

Overall condition is sound, but it’s dated: many looking at Glenesk will want to make significant changes, others may be happy with adjustments and updating: might it be replaced? Or, joined on site by one or more new-builds as is the case in several older Douglas properties?

The gardens are lovely with a signature maple/sycamore at the Douglas Road corner entrance into Ensleigh Park, along with cottonwood/poplars, and Copper Beech, plus raised beds.

The 0.3 acre of ground widens at the back (a house was built some decades ago left of the entrance on the main road), at the end of the drive (past electric gates) and to the left of a garage, a lovely quiet retreat…for now.

Homely

VERDICT: Despite a €1.1m AMV, it’s likely that builders will be brought in once sold, with the scale of ambition one of the few limits, once neighbours’ concerns and planners’ wishes, are factored in, of course.