€1.25m golf course-adjacent four-bed Monkstown home offers unparalleled calm and serenity

The striking stone of this luxury home contains a unique blend of maritime charm, global architectural salvaged materials, and peaceful golf-course living

Winterwood, Monkstown Castle Demesne. Pictures: Brian O'Glanby

Monkstown, Co Cork
€1.25m
Size	279 sq m (3,150 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4/5
Bathrooms	5
BER	C3

We wouldn't normally write about hitting a ‘traffic jam’ on the way to view a house — but when it only lasts a few seconds and features a couple of golfers who are crossing the seventh fairway of Monkstown Golf Club then it’s just a little different.

The winding road between the upper and lower portions of Monkstown Castle Demesne actually traverses the golf course but as you’re already driving pretty slowly with the windows down after spotting a fox cub and some red squirrels it’s more of a chance to chat about the weather for a moment than anything else.

That’s if you’re entering the area from the high or Rochestown side; there’s also a lower entrance from Monkstown village itself.

Parts of Monkstown Castle date to the 15th century

The whole ‘estate’ is a former wood demesne of Monkstown Castle, rumoured to have been built for one shilling in 1605. A little later to arrive on the scene is Monkstown Golf Club, established in 1908, and then around three dozen private houses of varying styles and sizes.

Among these is 2000-built Winterwood, now on the market for €1.25m. The house makes the most of its 0.6 acre sloped site resulting in three separate decking and balcony areas. Two-thirds of the external walls are dry-faced Ballydesmond stone which is also featured inside the house.

The current owners, a family of five, are moving on to a new project now that the children are grown.

They salute the area’s tranquility — perfectly appreciated from a balcony looking out on a 350-year old oak tree in the garden: “It’s so peaceful here, it’s just gorgeous to go out on the balcony in the morning and enjoy the calm. The neighbours are really lovely too, it’s just so quiet here.”

The haven-like quality of the home was tested recently when the owners went away for a few weeks and accidentally left a lower-level door wide open and returned to everything in perfect order.

Indoors, there’s plenty of chances for peace too — even with a decent-sized, fully-kitted-out discrete bar with its own outdoors deck downstairs, and accessed via a spiral staircase from one living room.

“The walls are so thick that there have been parties in that bar and we have been upstairs in the living area and haven’t even heard them,” say the owners.

As well as massively strong walls, there are many architectural salvage items and unusual timbers featured throughout. Among these is the redgum timber flooring in the living areas which was imported from the Murray-Darling basin in Australia. It’s believed that the other half of this shipment went to a home owned by Bono.

Indeed, the list of materials used at this four-bed luxury home reads like an around-the-world-in-80-days passport with heavy-duty roof slate from the Franvisa quarry in Spain, Italian black marble in the kitchen, floor slates from Bangor in Wales, patio paving from Liscannor, and reclaimed ballast bricks from Cork-bound Dutch sailing ships featuring in the kitchen and main fireplace.

Dotted throughout are framed autographs of authors, actors, and singers including Rod Stewart, Don McClean, and Freddy Mercury along with some yet-to-be-framed ones from the likes of Barack Obama, collected by one of the owners who works in broadcast media.

The ballast bricks aren’t the only nautical feature in this harbour-facing home. From the deck-like caulked marine flooring in the hallway to the stairway’s rope rigging and carved timbers — much of which were installed courtesy of a very local master mariner — a love of the sea is very much evident.

The influence of the sea is also reflected in the strong moody sea and coastal landscape paint colours inside which include an Inchyra slatey blue-grey in the hall and a warm taupe Charleston Grey upstairs.

They were selected by the lady of the house who also picked Winterwood as the home’s name when she admired how attractive the mostly native trees were even in winter when they had shed their leaves.

Just down the hill below those trees is Monkstown itself with popular bars and gastropubs such as The Bosun and The Ensign. Of course, Monkstown Golf Club has extensive clubhouse facilities and caters for golfers and non-golfers with christenings, communions, and other functions at the clubhouse.

And locals are already looking forward to the July opening of the new Cinnamon Cottage Cafe in Monkstown which will have a sit-down area and will sell grocery items including the daily newspaper.

There are primary and secondary schools nearby at Passage West and Rochestown — with MahonPoint Shopping Centre a 17-minute drive away and the city centre less than half an hour away.

“This house really gives the perfect balance of peaceful residential living and convenient access to Cork City and surrounding amenities. Monkstown with its maritime charm and strong community atmosphere also has excellent connectivity to Ringaskiddy and major employment hubs,” notes estate agent Johanna Murphy of Johanna Murphy and Sons Ltd.

Three of the four good-sized bedrooms have en suite bathrooms, and there’s a gaming den/ study downstairs which could be switched to being a bedroom too — you just know this house is going to be popular with guests from all over.

VERDICT: The woodland golf course-adjacent setting gives this house a real unique factor and enviable serenity too. People planning Ryder Cup visits to Ireland may well be among potential buyers attracted to Winterwood, if some more local buyer hasn’t swooped in first.