Full of the joys of Springduke, a €635k Bantry home with secret patio 

Architect designed Bantry home with delightful gardens has fantastic al fresco dining, writes Catherine Shanahan

Springduke, Seskin, Bantry

Bantry, West Cork
€635,000
Size	210 sq m (2260 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	4
BER	B3

SUPER GARDEN hopefuls could mine a few ideas from the deep seam of creativity that runs through the lush half-acre at Springduke, an architect-designed Bantry home named in honour of the Dungarvan townland its occupants hail from.

When Kate and John O’Sullivan relocated from Waterford to Seskin in West Cork in 1999, they brought more than the Springduke name with them: they also brought the design of their Dungarvan home.

Having rented initially, they bought a house in Dromleigh, which they then sold to drive ahead with their plans for Springduke. Bantry-based architect Ted Daly of Daly Barry Associates was drafted in to assist.

“We told him what we wanted and he worked around that. We wanted as much light as possible,” Kate says. The house was delivered by John’s brother-in-law, Derek Delacey, who built Springduke.

A pitched ceiling and double height windows make the hallway an impressively bright space. 

A piano sits under the open-tread staircase. 

The towering window looks down over the magnificently landscaped gardens.

The couple moved into Springduke in 2004 and set to work on the half acre. Two decades of green-fingered effort shows in every detail. 

The scene-stealer is the secret patio, tucked away at the bottom of steps that lead down from the front terrace.

 It’s as secluded a nook as you could wish for, set up perfectly for dining out and hosting barbecues or even warming yourself on chilly summer evenings by the open-air fireplace.

“We had built up the wall around the fireplace using stones from the site and we decided a few years later that we needed to do a proper job. So we got a local chap called Tim Welly to do the outside fireplace for us,” Kate says.

A friend of the family laid the patio slabs, and the couple’s son built a pergola over it. The seasonal wisteria canopy sprouted from a Future Forests voucher, gifted to the couple for their 25th wedding anniversary.

“It’s our favourite spot. We’ve had many’s the good party here,” says Kate.

Because they get such good use from the secret patio, she hired a chap to build a garden shed to store the outdoor furniture.

“I didn’t want to be hauling garden furniture up and down steps to the garage. So a guy dug out the site and built what I call my hobbit house,” she says.

 It’s as whimsical as a fairy tale and kids will certainly love it.

There’s a great deal more to the outdoor space: a cobble-locked terrace surrounds the house and is a glorious, south-facing sun trap to the rear.

There’s a herb garden, a polytunnel, and more than 40 types of trees, shrubs and plants, from fruit trees to magnolia to weeping willow, silver birch, camelia, clematis, and contorted hazel. You name it, it’s there.

Overlooking all of this lush growth from its elevated perch at the rear of the site is the house itself, a spacious, 210 sq m, five-bedroom dwelling, thoughtfully designed for relaxed family living, with the cosy comfort of underfloor heating.

 Provision has been made too for guests — there’s a ground floor bedroom with adjoining shower room.

Kitchen/ dining is open plan with patio doors to the rear courtyard.

A sunroom, open to the kitchen, gets terrific natural light.

 The main living room has an extra high ceiling.

Overhead, the main bedroom has a vaulted ceiling and skylights are plentiful throughout the upstairs.

Kate says it’s “a fantastic house, really well built, and we will miss it terribly”.

“It’s just so convenient to everything, about a quarter of a mile from the new primary school, from the secondary school and the hospital, as well as Bantry town itself. Our kids could all walk to school. And it was a brilliant place to be during covid, with the hills up behind us for walking, and the water nearby and Bantry Bay Golf Club. Everything you could possibly want is in the town.”

The agent selling Springduke is Denis Harrington of Harrington Estates and he says the area the house is in is a much favoured spot in Bantry town.

“Seskin is beautifully located just on the outskirts. When Springduke was built, two neighbouring detached homes were built around the same time and the three houses were the talk of the town. People would be waiting for one to come on the market,” Mr Harrington says.

Now that one of them is up for grabs, interest is coming from several quarters, including local, national, and international (UK and USA).

The agent’s guide price for Springduke is €635,000.

VERDICT: Ideally located, spacious family home with blooming marvellous gardens