Springmount House: A Cork mansion, a rumoured tunnel, and a €1.5m question mark

Historic Sunday’s Well residence with gaol folklore and 1.46 acres offers rare restoration or development opportunity in Cork city

Springmount House. Pictures: H-Pix

Sunday’s Well, Cork City
€1.5m
Size	595 sq m (6,380 sq ft)
Bedrooms	6
Bathrooms	6
BER	Exempt

There's a long history and lore in both fact and fiction linking old prisons and tunnels, from the likes of Alcatraz, to 1944’s great escape from the German POW camp Stalag Luft III, on to stories such as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Shawshank Redemption.

Added to that fascinating list can be Cork City’s Springmount House, located in the shadow of the old Cork City Gaol.

Dating to the early 1800s, when Sunday’s Well was transitioning from rural outlier to fashionable suburb — and after the 1824 completion of Cork City Gaol directly above it — local legend and family histories often also call Springmount House “the governor’s residence”, with beliefs that an underground tunnel connected the gaol to this house, set just across Convent Avenue, and link it the 1856-appointment of the gaol’s first Catholic governor, John Barry-Murphy, who died in 1891.

Underground passageways were, indeed, found in late 20th-century works at the 200-year old prison, and which is now a heritage centre, and legend has it that Barry-Murphy could travel discreetly from this impressive late Georgian/early Victorian house to his day job at the gaol.

However, some authoritative studies suggest the passages and tunnels were more likely deep drains rather than tunnels and dungeons: Sunday’s Well is historically noted for its springs and well, hence possibly Springmount’s name origins? Furthermore, the gothic, almost castle-like H-shaped gaol has at its centre the official governor’s residence, recreated today in its visitor centre complete with waxwork governor at his desk.

Yet, Barry-Murphy family lore does link the two early 19th-century structures, according to reports and the current family who’ve owned the hidden-away Springmount House for the past several decades also maintain their firm belief in the story.

Extensive Springmount House, on a very rare 1.46 acres of mature (almost rampant) greenery, was the family home of the late city auctioneer Liam Lynch, who passed away in 2018 and who had extensive property interests, and has not been lived in now for a number of years.

Previous owners were the Coughlan family, owners of the Ashley Hotel and former nightclub on Coburg Street.

Springmount’s building fabric reflects the recent vacancy, and the property now requires very substantial work, from the roof down, suggests selling agent Patricia Stokes.

She puts the 6,400 sq ft, six bed, four en-suite house with considerable reception rooms and substantial grounds on the open market with a €1.5m AMV.

Ms Stokes gives it a dual sales pitch, both as a future trophy property appropriately restored on utterly private gardens, or as a possible development site on sections of the wooded and walled grounds — subject to planning.

Directly south of the old Cork City Gaol, Springmount has several access points, including on Convent Avenue, but most notably from Sunday’s Well Road itself, with a sweeping entrance beside the property’s original gate lodge, now in other hands and dated to 1820 by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage — which oddly places Springmount’s date to 1840.

The heritage guide describes Springmount as “a large-scale, detached house which makes the most of its elevated south facing site, with the canted bays maximising light and views”.

“Together with the former gate lodge and fine entrance sweep to the south, it forms part of an interesting group.

“This house, with its generous grounds and gate lodge, is a reminder of a time when the area had a more rural character, before it became a fashionable suburb,” the guide adds.

Springmount’s set-back Sunday’s Well Road entrance sweep faces the high wall screening one of Cork City’s very best houses, Woodlawn, a mid-19th century 5,500 sq ft Italianate home on a large, double site with gardens down to the River Lee opposite Fitzgerald Park.

Like it and its neighbours, the proximity to the Shakey Bridge, the public park, the Mardyke Sports Arena, UCC, and Bon Secours Hospital campus also adds amenity value to a property as well-sited as like Springmount.

Woodlawn was sold at the Celtic Tiger peak for around €5m, and later sold again in difference circumstances for a recorded €2.2m, with the big c€5m (unconfirmed, in pre-Price Register days) gain 20 years ago going to businessman and developer Gerry Callanan.

Might there now be an entirely coincidental Gerry Callanan-like-link at Springmount House as it prepares to changes hands, and, if bought, with possible limited development in the wings?

Also back in the mid-2000s, the same Gerry Callanan had bought a 1930s house called Lisheen on nearby Strawberry Hill by Convent Lane, bounding the western walls of the old city gaol. He delivered a niche scheme of 12 high-end apartments there in its stead, called Lisin, and where recent resales have topped €400k.

Lisheen/Lisin’s redevelopment could provide a template for a portion of the 1.46 acres here, as well as possibly help to fund the restoration/conservation/rescue of Springmount House proper to its “former glory” days.

Right now, it’s on a scale of necessary works that the €50,000 vacant property grant — or even the €70,000 derelict property grant — would only scratch the surface of on a 6,400 sq ft heritage home, said to have had the Earl of Cork as a house guest at one stage, in need of salvation.

Accommodation spans three reception rooms, two with canted bay windows, dining room, home office, 19’ by 15’ kitchen with Aga, sun room, guest WC, and hall, all with 11’ ceilings, plus old 450 sq ft annex.

Two internal staircases serve the upper floor’s landings and six bedrooms, and one of the four en-suites has a bath, with that main bedroom (with two access points and window bay) also having a dressing room with fireplace, and the upper level has a ceiling height close to 10’. Features include stucco and decorative plasterwork, ceiling roses and cornicing, as well as sash windows.

Selling agent Trish Stokes notes the home “is in need of total refurbishment throughout, presenting a tremendous opportunity for purchasers across a wide cohort. It is sure to appeal to home owners and developers alike, all of whom will has varying and differing opinions as to how best to use this home and gardens.”

The Price Register shows eight Sunday’s Well house sales in excess of €1m, the latest being a waterside one called Lisheen (not the same as the Strawberry Hill one of the same name), known locally as “the Red House” at €1.99m, and Mount Vernon — also water-fronting by the Shakey Bridge — at €1.26m.

By coincidence of timing, Springmount House comes to market the same month as Lee Villa/21 Sunday’s Well Road, a mid-19th century Italianate detached 3,000 sq ft four-bed home beside St Vincent’s Church, south-facing and distinctly visible for the Mardyke.

Lee Villa launched with a €975,000 AMV, and it also needs caring hands and further spending to restore to top health.

“Period homes of this calibre in Sunday’s Well seldom come to market,” auctioneer Trish Stokes says of her listing, seeking “discerning purchasers” and adding that it combines “historical character, generous accommodation, and an unrivalled setting, set along one of Cork’s most historic and picturesque addresses”.

“It offers a rare opportunity to acquire a home of architectural charm, generous proportions, and enduring elegance — within minutes of Cork city centre.”

VERDICT: Light at the end of the tunnel? Needing work inside and outside, Springmount House will appeal to the well-heeled in search of domestic privacy as well as to developers with an eye to a quality niche scheme or sites.