Who needs gym membership at €1.95m Ngong, a home with its own leisure wing 

An indoor heated swimming pool, sauna, gym, zipwire and putting green are among the myriad attractions at this unique Carrigaline property 

Ngong, Carrigaline

Carrigaline, Co Cork
€1.95m
Size	680 sq m (7,319 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	5
BER	B3

THE word ‘Ngong’ doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue; there’s a sort of ‘otherness’ to it, which makes it a good name choice for the house featured here - also quite ‘other’ by Irish standards.

The original Ngong outline can be seen from above

Actually the original Ngong, built in the 1970s, was a dormer bungalow, albeit it had what Corkonians call ‘notions’ from the outset. It’s first owner, businessman Pat O’Donovan, built a swimming pool out the back. Its second owner James Barber, also a businessman and one-time owner of Ballea Castle near Carrigaline, added a conservatory. Both were substantial additions in their own right, but just tinkering around the edges compared to the upheaval that took place in 2008.

That noughties transformation created the modernist house you see today, which essentially includes an entire leisure wing: indoor heated swimming pool with sliding cover, glass-walled gym, poolside sauna, chill-out zone, shower, bathroom, utility/bootroom. 

Indoor heating swimming pool

Sauna

Gym

It’s spa-style living without ever leaving home.

Outside, on 1.58a (0.64ha) of tiered, landscaped grounds, is a synthetic putting green with two sand bunkers – tapping nicely into the broader Ryder Cup zeitgeist as Ireland gears up to host the blue riband event in Adare, Co Limerick, next year.

Putting green pictured above

The fun doesn’t end there. For kids who enjoy high jinks, a zip wire runs alongside the approach drive. Why walk when you can fly-by-wire?

The family that turned the elevated Kilnagleary property into the deluxe, amenity-rich zone that it is today was the Phelans, of Phelans Pharmacies, who bought it in the 1990s, after opening their first pharmacy in nearby Carrigaline in 1988.

Their early years at Ngong saw little change, but as the household grew, so did pressure on space. A chance conversation with an architect at a party led to a sketch on a napkin - and the project snowballed from there. What ultimately emerged was a home so fundamentally different to the original that you’d be hard pressed to believe it was anything other than a completely new build.

In fact the architect - Helmut Stutterich, then working with Wilson Architecture – did retain parts of the original dormer, including two first floor bedrooms, plus the swimming pool, which survived the new build, with upgrades. These retained elements were worked around as Ngong expanded in multiple directions - sideways, upwards, and outwards - not stopping until it reached the scale of a boutique hotel. These days, it offers more than 7,300 sq ft of hill-set living, with tremendous views over the Owenabue river valley to the west and the estuary beneath.

 It’s a gloriously tranquil setting and even though the house is up on high – or perhaps because of it - surprisingly private.

Double heigh atrium

Motorists travelling along the road below cannot see the property. Its current owners – husband-and-wife Frank and Pat Caul – didn’t know it existed until they came across it in the Irish Examiner’s Property and Home in 2020.

“We were living two doors down and we would pass up and down the road, but you couldn’t see the house. You would hear the occasional sound of a party, but that was it.

“It was only when it came up for sale and we saw photographs in the Irish Examiner that we realised what was here,” the couple say.

Ngong’s arrival to market in 2020 was good timing for the duo: the Sauter Group, a Swiss-based international company specialising in HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) had acquired a majority shareholding in a company called Sirus, (HVAC and Building Management Systems) which Frank had co-founded in 1988. The deal left him in a position to buy Ngong.

Walnut staircase

Upstairs living room

“We came and met the previous owners and agreed a deal very quickly because we were in the fortunate position to be able to do so,” Frank says. The Property Price Register shows the house sold for €1.74m in 2021.

Ngong was in robust good health when the Cauls bought it. The only changes they made related to tweaking energy performance, which is Frank’s area of expertise. That said, it was already performing well, thanks to clever design for solar gain/heat retention, a geothermal heat exchange system, underfloor heating and triple glazing throughout.

“There’s very little energy cost from May to October. If anything, you get the money back with micro-generation. It’s great in these times, when fuel prices are going up,” says Frank.

Frank’s improvements brought it to a B3 – a fair achievement in a home with a swimming pool. He also refurbished the pool, which the grandkids get a great kick out it.

“When family are coming to visit, they say ‘We are going to the hotel’,” Pat says.

It’s what Ngong feels like, with its dramatic, double height glazed entrance atrium and it’s striking walnut staircase, and its balconies and decks on different levels, and its many reception rooms (including two upstairs with exceptional vistas) and humongous windows on all levels overlooking those estuarine views.

At the heart of it all, a knockout open plan living space. 

Hone office

This king size room - about 40’ end-to-end and about 25’ deep – has glazed walls on the valley side, where tall sliding doors open to a decked terrace and BBQ area, while a band of electrically operated clerestory windows runs above. 

At the centre of this great cavern, and dividing up the space, is a towering double-sided fireplace with refined stonework that echoes some of the external finishes, which include immaculately layered Valentia slate and stone in columns and pillars, interspersed with smooth terracotta tiles. At one end of this lofty chamber is a bespoke kitchen, dominated by a generous island with expansive granite countertop. 

A separate breakfast bar is one dining option, another is at the table in the dining area, surrounded by glass and views. At the other side of the dividing fireplace is a large living area, also bathed in light and with those same uplifting views.

Principal bedrooms

Finishes everywhere are top-end and there’s a proliferation of solid walnut – in furniture, in the timber trusses in the vaulted roof above the swimming pool, in built-ins and in places like the home office off the main living space.

The main bedroom, on the ground floor, also has a solid walnut floor and is really a suite, with a room-sized walk-in wardrobe, a hotel standard en suite with a free standing bath and separate shower unit, and French doors to a patio.

A separate staircase at this end of the house leads two enormous upstairs living rooms, one with a pool table, both with terrific views.

Without too much ado, this wing - which also has first floor bedrooms and bathrooms - could be made into a self-contained unit, perhaps suiting a buyer looking to house two generations. At any rate, the layout is highly adaptable for most family stages

Ngong, named after the Ngong hills in Kenya by a previous owner who’d spent time in Africa, is brought to market for €1.95m by Scott O’Sullivan of Sherry FitzGerald. He describes the light at Ngong as the home’s “defining motif”. With as many windows as a small cruise ship - and some rooms with panoramic glass walls, light gets into every corner. 

The leisure ‘wing’ is like something you might find on a cruise ship too, albeit with nicer architecture. Two extra large downstairs bedrooms near the indoor pool have sliding doors to their own individual deck areas.

“For an active family, Ngong is in a class of its own,” Mr O’Sullivan says, and the location reinforces that appeal, particularly for sailors - the Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) is less than 10 minutes away, while the very large detached garage could easily store a boat, along with surf boards, canoes etc etc. For sea swimmers, the beaches of Myrtleville and Fountainstown are easily reached. Crosshaven village and Carrigaline are within the wider hinterland; Cork city is less than a half hour spin and a 24-hour bus service runs from the end of the road.

The sense you get from Ngong is that money was no object when its 2008 transformation was planned and executed, with craftsmanship, material quality and attention to detail evident throughout. Built as the Phelan family’s dream home, it followed that familiar arc of a house that becomes too large once the kids move on. Couples downsize and move on too.

For Frank and Pat, they’ve had five good years at Ngong, but the time has come for them to also trade down.

Mr O’Sullivan is already fielding enquiries from families in the UK who are looking to return to Cork. However he points out that the house could also attract a local buyer, as it did when it last sold in 2021.

VERDICT:

With its leisure centre, zip wire and putting green, Ngong is tailor made for family, particularly the outdoorsy kind. Doors slide open to decks and balconies off most of the main rooms. Light levels, room volumes and views are crackingly good. Buyers who value privacy and the convenience of a regular inhouse gym workout/quick dip/restorative sauna should lap it up.

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