Starting at €975,000, Birchfield is a mature family home that offers tasty choices

Birchfield House, Carrigaline. Pictures: H-Pix

Fernhill Rd, Carrigaline, Cork
€975,000
Size	260 sq m (2,785 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	4
BER	D1

There's almost a ‘chalk and cheese’ difference on either side of Carrigaline’s Fernhill Rd, round about where this one-off, mature family home, Birchfield House, is privately set.

On the western side from here is Herons Wood, a well-established, medium-density housing development of more than 600 homes, done by builder Stephen McCarthy’s Astra Construction in the early to mid-2000s. Now, at 20 years old, it’s highly regarded, and well-serviced with a creche and thru’ roads linking to the Cork Rd from the Fernhill Rd.

Astra later followed with the c 800 home development Janeville, closer to the Shannonpark Roundabout, so the area has been changing of late, and will continue to, with the long-awaited M28 Ringaskiddy motorway steadily now advancing along its cleared route to the port.

Then, in contrast to all that density, completed, current and future development and ramping up pace of change is the likes of Birchfield House. On the opposite side of Fernhill Road to Herons Wood, it is newly up for sale, in the middle of its three tended acres, with much of it already well utilised and appreciated for a free-range country lifestyle on the doorstep of Carrigaline.

But, it may have other future changes in store too: development potential in its own right?

All around is change, you see. Right next door to Birchfield House, on its long northern boundary, is the former 18-hole Fernhill golf course, developed decades ago by Michael Bowes along with a small hotel and lodges. Fernhill’s no longer in use as a sports amenity, and is likely to be the focus of a substantial residential-led development over the next decade or so.

Fernhill’s old course has been on the market for some time by now, initially launched with a €12m guide in 2017, with major developer interest being shown given its scale and scope, with zoning changed to Fernhill Urban Expansion area. Other development lands are by Shannonpark, with additional, other adjacent lands being rezoned currently by Cork County Council after a 2025 government-led shout-out for further residential lands to come forward to ease the housing crisis.

It appears Birchfield House had previous roots too to the adjacent Fernhill landbank, as this now 2,750 sq ft house was first built in 1980 by the land-owning local Johnson family as their own home after they’d previously sold land at Carrigaline’s Waterpark in the 1970s.

The satellite town’s advances and residential surges have been steady since Birchfield’s own roots went down in 1980: what of its fate now? Might it even get to (re)form part of a larger, amalgamated picture with the ex-Fernhill golf course to the north?

It’s an open question, admits Birchfield House’s selling agent Michael Pigott, who launches this week at €975,000, describing it as a large, country-style home, on the middle of its three-acre private grounds, with an acre to the front, and acre behind, and an acre of gardens with the house, along with a decades-old run of five stables, used by previous owners who kept horses.

The family who moved here in 2002 as its third owners had previously lived in Glenbrook: he was a city boy, from the Glasheen Road, she was a country lass, from a 70-acre farm at Araglin, and she spotted the ‘For Sale’ sign back in ’02 when they wanted a bigger home for their family of four, later added to with four dogs and over a dozen hens.

It turned out to be the perfect buy for their needs, mixing city and town convenience, yet being a home with a strong country setting feel: it was a perfect work commute for him too, as he worked at a very senior level in one of the harbour area’s pharma plants … a seven-minute drive down the ‘old’ N28.

“Soon, that’ll be a motorway, down to Ringaskiddy and there’ll virtually be a motorway all the way to Dublin once the roundabout by Shannonpark is changed,” says the departing man of the house, ready to trade down after 23 years, now retired.

He’s not going far and is buying locally — going back to the city was an option, but family, friendship, and neighbourly links were forged here, he says, commenting “we had a great family life here”.

Who knows what he’ll see across the Fernhill Rd from his next home, in say five, 10, or 20 years more time?

Will Birchfield House still stand, screened by the strong belt of trees (many likely to be birches, surely?) at the end of its private 100m-long slightly, winding tarmac approach avenue.

Will it still be a family home? Will horses graze here, will future generations of laying hens still try to keep opportunistic foxes or mink away?

If bought by a family, might optional additional sites be kept, fore and aft, for offspring in years to come?

Or, will there be more than one house here? Lots? Lots and lots?

Answers on a postcard, perhaps, one accompanying a sizeable cheque for up to or over €1m, given the €975,000 AMV.

As it stands, it’s a walk-in order, five-bed family home with excellent finishes, a David Kiely kitchen with 1in thick solid timber painted doors, island, and beveled granite worktops. There are some vaulted or double height spaces, such as the sun room added by the current appreciative occupants, down a step or two off the kitchen via a wide arch, while a few other arches also link various internal spaces.

Other rooms include a wide hall, entered via double doors, a lounge with gas stove, family room/TV room, boot room, utility, guest WC, and a ground floor en suite bedroom.

Above are two bathrooms, four bedrooms, one of which is en suite with a bath and shower and storage.

Heating’s a mix of gas central heating, there’s some electric underfloor heating, several gas stoves and the BER is a D1.

Green fingers are in evidence in Birchfield’s healthy indoor plants and in the garden’s planting, with lots of spring bulbs and blossoms coming into their seasonal best, the payoff for decades of planting over the best part of the last 50 years.

The two-storey house was designed with irregular sections for lots of light from the East, West, and South, with outdoor seating areas and pergola, polytunnel, timber finished block of five stables, hen house, garage, and 150sq m storage shed.

VERDICT: Any and all of the above will appeal to a trade-up family who’d relish the freedom and privacy that’s been so evidently enjoyed here, within a walk of Carrigaline town, and who’d have future site/sale options with the march of time.

Others will look at the zoning, which allows ‘Existing Residential, Mixed Residential or Other Uses’ and, like the fox in the hen house think, ‘hmmm, tasty indeed’.