Bespoke five-bed Tudor home with woodland setting hits Cork market at €1.75m

Crafted with passion and precision, Bramble Lodge is a rare Tudor revival on 1.4 acres near Cork Harbour

Fri, 25 Jul, 2025 - 17:30

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports

Brookwood, Crosshaven, Cork Harbour
€1.75 million
Size	386 sqm (4,130 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	5
BER	B3

A FASTIDIOUS, ‘belt and braces’ approach was brought to the build quality of this one-off home built in both block and timber frame and ringed with heavy beams, all to a classic Tudor style palette, in woodlands near the waters of Cork harbour.

Wood and water setting above Drakes Pool and Crosshaven

Called Bramble Lodge after the ancient forested site’s original tangle of briars in dense woods now all groomed and green, verdant and lush, this challenging build and delivery was a labour of love for its owners, John and Ann Loughnan: they’d wanted to recreate the charm and feel of a Tudor revival home they’d previously lived in in West Sussex in the UK for a number of years.

Only, in the case of Cork’s Bramble Lodge, they made it bigger, by quite the country margin.

The immensely robust building was designed and delivered by John Maher Loughnan, who’d trained as an engineer and pivoted to building skills, later entering the wider property sector on his return with Ann (nee Murphy) when he and she set up Choices Property in 1993, now Cork’s largest lettings and management companies, dealing with thousands of rentals.

On the family home front, this was the dream, and possibly because of its almost timeless traditional Tudor design, has barely dated a jot since it was built day one, in 1997: it was deliberately set out to look old, pay homage to distant past, and, yes, it still does reflect traditional times.

There’s a reassurance coming with its skilled and knowing self-builder’s commitment to quality: materials were imported variously from the UK, Sweden, Spain, and France, as well as sourced locally. Some of the hardwood flooring was salvaged from the old Thompsons’ bakery on MacCurtain Street, Cork City, and the fully-invested John Loughnan oversaw the process himself opting to build via direct labour.

Main living room has a floor salvaged from Thompsons bakery Cork

And, there’s also assurance going forward as it gets a B3 energy rating — some testament to a home built 28 years ago.

Today, as it comes for sale, Bramble Lodge is hard to date given the deliberate intent to head back in time to timbered Tudor design and build materials that age naturally. It’s in immaculate order inside and outside with enormous attention to detail across its c 4,100 sq ft within, backed up by a 170 sq ft stand-alone barn-like lofted garage and has a 300 sq ft garden shed/glasshouse in an elevated section like a secret retreat.

The package, all on 1.4 groomed acres, elevated with mature trees and backed by farmland, is in a niche scheme of just a dozen highly individualised homes delivered in two tranches.

Set off the scenic Carrigaline to Crosshaven Road just near the picture perfect Drakes Pool and its moored yachts swivelling with the tides, just above the hugely popular estuary walk on the old rail line, Brookwood emerged in two tranches, on c 78 acres starting in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and with a further delivery in the 2000s.

Bramble Lodge was one of the earliest homes in exclusive Brookwood, and at the time the Loughnans had to work hard to get planning for it with planners’ insistence at the time on more traditional dormer homes.

With the passage of time, what came later at Brookwood is very diverse, reflecting different times and decades, build materials and vogue styles, including flat roof contemporary one-offs, and all pretty much lost in their own substantial woodland sites.

One of the very biggest, Bramble Lodge is listed this month with estate agent Patricia Stokes who guides at €1.75m, and it’s the fourth house Ms Stokes has got to sell here over the past decade or so: the last, No 3 Brookwood, made €1.5m according to the Price Register.

Trish Stokes is selling for Ann Loughnan and family after the passing of father of three John in March 2024; it’s a much loved intergenerational home, shared with offspring and grandchildren.

The agent adds that the one-owner-ever, five bed family home is “bespoke in every way” and has a superb mix of day rooms, family rooms, bedrooms of huge character, and evidence of painstaking attention to detail and ‘authenticity’.

She instances the brickwork around several chimneypieces in Yorkshire brick, with shaped opes, Inglenook style, niches, bricks set in arches, on the vertical and flat, showing huge and masterful mason skills and determination to show possibilities that lesser brickies might rather shun.

Similarly, there’s huge heft in the timbers, internal and external, exactly the way original Tudor builds would have presented centuries ago and which are still standing now: no reason why Bramble Lodge won’t be proudly upright in future centuries too.

It’s a familiar mix of timber framing, beams, blockwork, brick, and render, in this case rough plastering both externally and internally to a slightly lesser extent, with lapped wood sheeting on gables, dark stained, all under an immense steeply pitched roof with neat selection of dormer windows, sheathed in many thousands of hand-made exquisite French clay tiles with bonnet detailing on the ridges: along with a weather vane, it’s Bramble Lodge’s crowning glory.

Inside there’s both whimsy and practicality in the layout and room detailing: the entry hall (with brick fireplace) opens to a double height vaulted space with ringed landing. Trish Stokes likens it to the ‘whispering gallery’ of yore, of old Tudor and medieval builds, often featured in old manor houses for monitoring servants or ‘spying’ on guests with acoustic efficacy, also seen in church and ecclesiastical architecture, notably in St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Off to the left is a formal reception room, down a few steps and thus with extra high ceilings, with a large brick fireplace/opening inglenook style, about 10’ wide with stove, and the room has a triple aspect, with leaded (real leading) on casement-style double glazed (Pilkington K-rated) windows, imported from Sweden. This room alone is c 22’ by 21’ with bay window: the floor is reclaimed timber from Thompson’s bakery in Cork - the family dubs this ‘the Christmas room’ as the substantial fireplace is set up for substantial Santa visits and stockings.

Off is a home office/den, with cheery yellow walls, extensively shelved, mixed with brick. Behind is an equally substantial family room, with access to a paved sun terrace/patio and linking to a long kitchen/ family dining room, paved with sandstone, with solid timber units, topped with hardwood, with deep Belfast ceramic sink, whilst cooking options include an oil Aga-style range, and an electric oven for warmer summer days.

This is backed up by a utility/ pantry with slate/ stone floor, and the house’s accommodation continues, with a formal dining room, pivoting into a glorious sun room, with overhead Veluxes and a host of mature house plants looking right at home in this extra bright room.

There’s more: a back hall leads to another reception room, quietly removed from the others, almost self-contained in its way as a wing/adjunct, and above is one of the Bramble Lodge’s prettiest bedrooms, en suite, with gable balcony for garden and forest views.

The main house section, meanwhile has four other bedrooms, one of them en suite, all lovely and in varied shapes and sizes, each with a different garden view or aspect and while you can’t see the tidal waters of the Owenabue beneath, somehow you sense its presence and proximity.

Now well-familiar with Brookwood after her several previous sales, here, agent Trish Stokes says the backdrop of farmland at Aghamarta gives “each of these individual homes ultimate privacy in an area that feels rural once you are within its grounds, yet in a location minutes to conveniences and a short trip to the city.”

VERDICT: Niche not only because of its setting and price, but also due to its Tudor theme, the likes of Bramble Lodge and grounds is unlikely to be built again to such a painstaking standard: the family’s vision and commitment will reward a buyer looking for something truly original in the Munster market.