A bar, movie nights and a pool table - all to play for at €1.1m supersized Rowan Lane home

Light, space and comfort all rolled into one at this American style Riverstick property

Fri, 10 Oct, 2025 - 14:00

Catherine Shanahan Pictures: H-pix

Riverstick, Co Cork
€1.1m
Size	400 sq m (4306 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	7
BER	A2

DEVELOPERS stepped in and out at Rowan Lane with the deftness of dancers at Lanigan’s Ball, but it all panned out well in the end.

Photographic archive at the Irish Examiner shows three largely completed hulking homes on a hillside outside the village of Riverstick in January 2008, with a couple more under construction.

Rowan Lane in January 2008, ahead of the property crash Picture: Denis Scannell

By June, one had been launched as a showhouse with a generous dollop of Celtic Tiger extras, on land owned by local farmer Andre O’Mahony and developed by Bandon-based Coolfadda Developments. Come September, the bottom had fallen out of the property market and Rowan Lane entered the slow and sobering process of trying to rebuild its identity beyond a symbolic reckoning of Celtic Tiger hubris.

That it managed to do so, with aplomb, is down to a number of factors, including the quality of the builds on the five acre site, the drafting in of new architects to freshen up the façades after a change of ownership, and considerable internal remodelling.

Rowan Lane is an impressive hillside development on the Kinsale side of Riverstick village

The developer to successfully finish out Rowan Lane was Sidney McElhinney of Dooneen Property Developments Ltd, a seasoned builder known for delivering high-end schemes (also behind The Belvedere in Kinsale, a development of three-storey de-luxe homes, launched two years ago, where the top price paid so far is €1.368m). The jumbo-sized detached properties at Rowan Lane appealed to Fiona and Pete Rawlinson who were returning to Ireland after several years in New York and Connecticut and were looking for the kind of family-friendly design they had grown used to in the US.

“We were returning from the US and we had a lot of over-sized US furniture and we wanted a house that it would fit in. Someone told us about this estate and the American style houses that were for sale, and it was a bit like recreating what we had in Connecticut, with so much space and light and comfort” says Fiona, who is originally from Cork.

“After years in the States, we didn’t want to compromise,” Pete adds. Discovering that the house was just 11km from Cork Airport clinched the deal for the pair. Frequent flyers in their roles as marketing professionals – Fiona with Carbery Foods and Pete in cybertechnology security – quick access to air travel was essential.

The couple, who returned to Cork with their daughter six years ago, moved first to Heatherfield in Waterfall, before relocating to Riverstick to their new build in 2021. With just three of them and more than 4,300 sq ft of living space across three generous floors, they could afford to have some fun in how they styled the rooms.

Pleased with the craftsmanship of Dooneen Property Developments, they asked the McElhinney crew back to install a bar in the ground floor reception room, where there’s also a king-sized TV screen and remote controlled blackout blinds for movie nights.

Even with XXL furniture, they had room for a pool table.

“We have lots of visitors from the US and the UK and we like to entertain and we’ve had a few decent parties and pool competitions in here,” says Pete, originally from the north of England.

Across the big bright, high-ceilinged hallway is the “in-law suite”, the only ground floor bedroom (with en suite), currently used by Pete as a home office-cum-gym.

In-law suite in use as a home office and gym

An impressive feature of the hallway is the solid staircase with glass balustrade that curves up through the top two floors, serving wide landings.

First floor reading nook is framed by dual aspect picture windows

A reading nook on the middle floor has picture windows that look over a green valley towards Curra Wood.

Because the house is built into a hillside, the effect is split level.

No 4 is split level and the middle floor opens into the back garden

Even though the the open-plan kitchen/dining/living room is on the middle floor, it opens directly onto the rear garden.

French doors in the open plan area open to the rear garden

Locating it on the middle floor opens up the valley views for anyone standing at the kitchen sink.

Light floods in from a multitude of angles thanks to a glut of windows. French doors open from the lounge area to a south facing composite deck, installed by the Rawlinsons.

There’s also a patio and plenty of lawn, ringed around the perimeter by an attractive stone wall. Tall hedging creates privacy. The couple particularly enjoy the deck: As it’s wraparound, they have views down the valley from the side of the house.

“It’s a real suntrap, we get sunlight until 9pm during the summer months,” Fiona says. The site covers a substantial 0.33a.

Steps run down both sides of the detached house to a large cobble lock driveway. It’s overlooked by a balcony at mid-level, off the main reception room.

No 4 is the only home in the development to have a balcony

No 4 is the only home in the exclusive scheme of 10 to have a balcony. “We call it the G&T room,” laughs Pete. It’s accessed via floor-to-ceiling doors off the spacious living room which has a feature electric fireplace and eye-catching, full-height cabinetry.

A roof overhang provides shelter for anyone sitting out on the balcony while a glass balustrade ensures safety. On the same floor, a second, smaller lounge is used as a playroom, but could be another bedroom/home office/gym- take your pick.

On the top floor, three of four bedrooms have en suites, while the fourth bedroom has use of the main designer bathroom with standalone rolltop bath.

Sanitary ware is top of the range.

There’s no denying that Rowan Lane homes are a byword for luxury. Carpentry is first rate, so is energy efficiency (A2, helped by PV solar panels, air to water heating and Daiken heat pump). Much of the flooring is solid oak herringbone.

Bedrooms are of generous dimensions and cleverly designed so that doorless en suites are not line-of-sight.

Kitchen units – which include a fabulous pantry and built in chopping board storage - are solid wood with warm tones and granite countertops; doors and windows are AluClad; the houses themselves are concrete-built with underfloor heating on every floor. They have generous garages too, as well as an electric car charger.

An attic offers additional storage.

The American-style proportions of these homes have attracted other US buyers – at least two more are occupied by owners from the USA. Fiona and Pete are only relocating because their daughter is about to attend Kinsale Community School and they are planning to move even closer to the coastal town. It’s just 8.5km west of Riverstick, while Cork city is 16km in the opposite direction. Employers such as pharma plant Lilly are easily accessed (10.8km). The village bus stop is just 1km away.

Lawrence Sweeney of Savills is guiding No 4 at €1.1m, which, if reached will set a new price high for the scheme (currently held by No 4, which sold for €902,325 in 2021). He expects interest “from the international market, as well as Dublin and buyers with a Cork connection”. He believes academics and medics will feature and that it will appeal to families trading up.

“Rowan Lane is an exclusive development, next to a village that has all the essentials. You can buy a pint of milk or a bag of chips or go to the doctor or the pharmacist or the hairdresser, or catch a bus to Kinsale or Cork city. It has a rural feel, but urban convenience,” the agent says, adding that school bus routes serve both primary and secondary schools.

Pete says Riverstick has been “a safe, welcoming neighbourhood” and that their home has given them “four wonderful years”.

The estate itself has matured nicely, even though some of the homes were only fully finished out in recent years. Initially highly visible from the main R600 road because of their height and bulk, they’ve bedded down well and are more hidden now amid trees and greenery.

VERDICT: Pitched from the get-go as a luxury build for high-end buyers, Rowan Lane has finally delivered on its Celtic Tiger promise.