House of the Week: Class original features at Ballintemple five-bed home

Cúl Árd in Ardfoyle is the 'real deal' and has been sensitively remodelled 

Cúl Árd, Ardfoyle, Ballintemple

Ballintemple, Cork city
€1.475m
Size	248 sq m [2670 sq ft]
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	5
BER	E1

Some of the best original features have been kept — and are worth hanging on to — at this three-storey Ardfoyle home in the Cork city suburb of Ballintemple.

Cúl Árd, on the crescent-shaped section of Ardfoyle that sweeps from Park Ave around towards the Ardfoyle Convent, has been somewhat remodelled over the years, but not at the expense of character and class.

Its elegant Edwardian style is evident in everything, from the terracotta-crested ridge tiles and finials on the gable front to the polychromatic brick voussoirs (the red and yellow arched bricks over the front door). These fine details don’t make it unique by any means — design elements of this type of home crop up in modern versions throughout Ballintemple and beyond — but this house is the real deal and it shows.

The current owners have lived here for the last quarter-century and carried out some thoughtful work along the way. Originally a seven-bedroom home, it has been reconfigured to a generous five-bed property, which is really more of a gain than a loss.

To the front, there’s pretty stonework and wrought ironwork with plenty of planting going on.

Experts often advise leaving the garden alone for the first year after moving in so you can see where the light lands and what’s already growing well there. Well, to get you started, we can list hydrangea, lilies, agapanthus, roses, wisteria, and foxgloves, with strawberries just peeping through the lower growth.

Mature wedding cake tree in the front garden of Cúl Árd, Ardfoyle Crescent

The beautiful tree on the east corner of the front garden is a variegated wedding cake tree, which the owners recall was planted around 21 years ago.

And, if all that growth isn’t enough for you, then there’s a great Open Day and Plant Sale coming up a few doors away at Ardfoyle Convent on June 10 (10am-3pm), where you’ll get a lovely mix of classic plants and some more unusual ones too for pretty reasonable prices.

To the back of the property is a good-sized garden with a stone patio. At the very end, the most northerly end, it’s screened off but leads to a steep downward section that runs right down to the trees bordering the newly renovated walkway around the Atlantic Pond. That steep piste section by no means rules out gardening or recreation — similarly inclined properties nearby have created superb tiered woodland nooks with shaded seating and dappled terraces.

In the house itself, there’s a classic stained-glass front door, notes Sam Kingston of Casey & Kingston, opening to a hallway with original encaustic floor tiles and an attractive original hardwood staircase.

The bright bay-windowed front room is definitely more of a ‘drawing room’ and still has its fireplace.

The kitchen has a Rangemaster cooker and a water filtration tap and cabinets that fit the house style very well. Adjoining this, there’s a spacious area at the back of the house which has French doors opening out to the patio and back garden. This family room has twin skylights, so it’s bright, and also has two tall sash windows either side of the doors.

Upstairs, two of the bedrooms have their own bathrooms and the main bathroom has a classic clawfoot bath. The front-facing third-floor bedroom has an attractive and unusual triangle-shaped window as well as a smaller skylight window.

If you come out the driveway and take a right, you’re only a two-minute walk from the Atlantic Pond and Marina promenade.

And, heading along the crescent in the other direction, you’re at Ballintemple village in a matter of minutes. Here, you’ve got a pharmacy, grocery store, two pubs, and a cafe/deli.

Further along the Blackrock Rd brings you past an antiques shop and pubs with beer gardens and food options, right down to Blackrock village, which has a farmers’ market on Sunday mornings.

The main road is a bus route from Mahon Point to the city centre and on to Apple on the north side of the city. And there are cycle paths on the greenway, as well as on Monahan Rd, leading to town.

Cúl Árd, Ardfoyle for sale in 2002

VERDICT: A Ballintemple classic with plenty of class and charisma.