A look inside the new €1m+ apartments at Drumcora House

There are a dozen A-rated apartments at former Dunlops Sport and Social Club on Cork's Blackrock Road

Drumcora House. Picture: Larry Cummins

Blackrock Road, Cork city
€965,000 - €1.275 million
Size	90 – 134 sq m (965 sq ft - 1,435 sq ft)
Bedrooms	1-3
Bathrooms	1-3
BER	A

The rubber is about to hit the (Blackrock) road — in a good way — for the remoulding of Drumcora House, a period era early 1800s Blackrock Road home of huge local architectural significance and known to previous generations of Corkonians as Dunlop’s Sports and Social Club.

Now?

Drumcora House is set to be home to a dozen ultra-high end city apartments, in a mix of old and new, at an average of €1m each, with these lofty values underpinned by its heritage, as well as its quality, and by its location….pretty much as it was 200 years ago.

The genteel Georgian beauty, with its twin full-height bay windows, and slate hung exteriors, has had many ups and downs over its long, long life: 

• from private residence to upgraded home of a celebrated Cork architect
• later owned by several of the southern city’s merchant families
• then, charitably going to house families in need
• and lastly grafting for a living as a busy and multi-faceted social hub for Dunlops from the 1970s while the rubber goods maker was one of Cork’s largest employers, with up to 2,500 workers at peak before winding up in the dark 1980s.

As a dozen apartments get officially launched this month after a years’ long protracted conservation and extension programme, at prices from €595,000 for a solidary one-bed, to €1.275m for a three-bed, there’s going to be chattering classes buzz about Cork as one of its most loved and admired period homes finds a new and accommodating life, after several decades looking forlorn and a bit down in the dumps.

Drumcora House Pictures: H-Pix

Cork has a habit of letting some of its most stunning period homes fall by the wayside, or previously to bedsits, or worse fall prey to fire (think Vernon Mount?) or the wrecker’s ball: thankfully, no such fate for Drumcora House.

Originally called Carriduve — a rather unimaginative translation of Blackrock/Carraig Dubh, back when first built c 1800 (that name later transferred to another house), this gracious Georgian three-storey home was brought to an even higher level of aesthetic beauty by the 1820s when bought by celebrated Cork architect Thomas Deane, who went on to build the far-grander Dundanion House even closer to Blackrock Village for himself in the 1830s.

Thomas Deane renamed Carrigduve/now Drumcora Herculaneum, after a statue of Hercules brought from Blarney Castle… as one does.

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After Deane moved on (the original architect isn’t widely credited, Deane’s name is most closely associated with it today) the lofty, villa-style home which was described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as “one of the architectural jewels of Cork City” between Ballintemple and Blackrock villages, was owned by a Captain Sherlock, later by the Mahony family of the Blarney woollen and textile mills enterprises. Also in ownership at various times were the wine and spirit merchant family of Dominic J Daly, in the 1940s Doyles, of stevedoring renown, followed by Egans ….all ‘old’ Cork families, affluent through commerce and trading strengths.

Evening Echo, South Gate, March 24, 1988

By the early 1970s, Drumcora was acquired for a recorded £20,000 from the Egan family by rubber goods’ makers Dunlops, who’d opened a factory in Cork’s Marina area next to the vast Ford autos and tractors plant in the 1930s, becoming one of the southern city’s largest employers, often to generations of workers from the same families.

Dunlops closed down in 1983/1984, in a dark, black economic decade for Cork’s traditional industries which at the same time included the loss of Fords, Verolme dockyard and, later Irish Steel.

Picture: Larry Cummins

For at least two decades Drumcora House kept the bright side out for Dunlops’ many thousands of employees and their families. It operated as a social and sporting hub which included pitch and putt in the property’s extensive former acres of grounds; there was a snooker room with a trio of tables; function room and a bar which, up until the late 1980s, hosted retirements, seasonal parties, weddings, sports presentations, and dances… before going ‘dark for many years.

Much of its earlier lands have since been built on, and several sale offers came in 2008, and again in 2011 for the club , when the house and curtilage had its AMV reduced from €1.5m to €495,000, the eventual sale price (not publicly recorded) reflecting the fact it needed so much delicate conservation work to its original detailing.

Sources linked its purchase to medic fertility specialist John Waterstone who’d acquired several Cork period houses over a decade or so, and planning was later sought by Kerry-based KPH Construction for conversion and extension for twelve apartments, with planning eventually granted on appeal to An Bord Pleanála around 2020, with work commencing around 2022.

Images: H-Pix

Ownership transferred more recently to emerging high-end niche developers Kurland Properties, incorporated in 2016 and associated with businessman Seward Lynch, beneficiary of a substantial company sale of Cork Plastics some years ago for a substantial multi-million euro sum, and Deirdre Lynch. Under Kurland, it has just now been completed by Westbrook Construction, with oversight by DOSA Consultant Engineers.

Kurland/Lynches have also been linked to other recent development play purchases in Cork such as Feltrim, on the Blackrock Road for close to €6 million with plans for its grounds still not revealed, and another site with FPP for nine new builds on Victoria Road which had an AMV of €1.55m.

As Drumcora’s dozen apartments come now to market (with two reserved) they are teed up by an expansive 78-page digital brochure extolling the niche development’s merits, with detailed floor plans of each of the 12, finishes, fit-outs along with listing many of the attractions of the location….proven by two centuries and currently on the crest of a wave of popularity and high property prices.

The Price Register shows over 60 property sales with a Blackrock Cork address in excess of €1m, and a half a dozen over €2m, with recent top price being the €3m paid for an upgraded period detached called Rose Lodge, sold off market after appearing in these pages in 2025 with a €2.75m AMV, acquired by a buyer living locally.

(PS don’t let Cork’s Blackrock get too far ahead of itself: the same Price Register shows more than 870 sales in excess of €1m in Dublin’s Blackrock!)

At Drumcora House, seven of the 12 units have price tags in excess of €1m, spanning a two-bed/three bath in the original house at €1.075m for the largest, at 134 sq m for a top floor plus attic apartment in the original house, to €1.275m m for a 122 sq m three-bed, three bath unit in the spanking new, brick-faced wing on the property’s eastern flank.

Images: H-Pix

The sales listing released this week by Drumcora’s selling agent Suzanne Tyrrell of Cohalan Downing bills the six apartments in the original three-storey house as ‘Historic,’ numbers 1-6, and the other six in the modern wing as ‘Contemporary,’ nos 7-12.

Ms Tyrrell and Kurland have two units set out as show apartments for the coming sale process, one in the ‘historic’ section, Residence 3, complete with bow window (the ’money’ shot,), the other modern.

Nos 3 and 11 are marked ‘reserved,’ one in each half, at €965,000 and €960,000 respectively, with the first of the €1m+ sales expected in coming weeks and months after a low-key early placement to registered inquiries.

That €1m price barrier for a Blackrock apartment has only been breached once to date, according to the Price Register, and that was for the superlative period No 16 in the converted Ursuline Convent, aka Blackrock House in the heart of Blackrock village, when that 2,540 sq ft three-bed apartment fetched €1.35m in 2024.

Similar to a number of units in that period convent/period home conversion Blackrock House/Ursuline Convent/Pleasant Fields with its own even earlier roots to the 1700s, a number of the apartments at Drumcora House have no private outdoor spaces to themselves.

The two ground floor ones do, Residence 1 and Residence 2, with terraces to the sides, but the upper two levels have no terraces or balconies, understandably really given the precious symmetry of the facades, front (five bay) and back, with the deep twin wide window bays to the north and elegant sash windows (arranged nine panes over six, and six over six.)

A defining retained feature is the garland swag/circular laurel wreath over the olive-green painted porch entrance — a decorative feature dating to Thomas Deane’s time here two centuries ago, and which he also possibly used as a ‘brand’ or signature in speculative developments in Cork’s Washington Street and South Terrace, according to writer Frank Keohane in his authoritative Yale University Press Buildings of Ireland, Cork City and County guide of 2020.

Drumcora is considered one of the finest surviving Georgian villas on Cork’s Blackrock Road because of features it has kept down the centuries such as its rare double bow-front, on the main northern façade, its slate hung exterior, a distinctive Cork (and, Kinsale) feature, its curved historic entrance gates and walls and strong relationship to Blackrock’s streetscape where, for years until now, it was one of the sorrier looking originals.

Sorry no more, thankfully, as Drumcora prepares to hold a clutch of new occupants, likely to be better-off traders-down in the main, as well as returnees from overseas, and among the potential buyer pool, some will favour the slate-faced period-era six, other will prefer the slickness of all-new apartments, with brick facades, terraces or balconies, and lift access. (There’s stairs access only inside the original Drumcora House.)

There’s enough differences between the 12 to make choices individual enough also, from the most expense Residence No 12 with 122 sq m/1,313 sq ft at €1.275m, to the second floor plus attic level Residence No 5 in the period build, the largest at 134 sq m/1,440 sq ft, next to the one-bed maisonette No 6, at €595,000 for 51 sq m/549 sq ft.

Kitchens are by House of Coolmore, with Dekton tops and Neff appliances, sanitary ware is from Roca, there’s air to water heating and heat recovery, and the superbly finished external finishes and planting is by Lavender Landscaping.

Storage units

Main access is via automatic gates on the splayed/set-back entrance, wrought iron in the old limestone pillars with pedestrian gates either side, with 17 car parking spaces in all plus one reserved disabled access space, with at least one reserved car parking space with each of the 12 apartments, all with EV charge points.

Each apartment has a reserved storage space in a separate long build along the northern boundary, a bit like a long line of stables, for the likes of bikes, golf and sporting gear, and the Christmas decorations for the years to come.

Picture: Larry Cummins

VERDICT: Cork has had only a handful of €1m+ apartment sales up to now, at the Elysian, Blackrock House and Lancaster Quay. Now, Drumcora House comes with seven of the 12 ‘Residences’ priced over that significant price point.

Might its success rate serve to direct Kurland Properties as to what to deliver at its other niche site, Feltrim, next to the African Missions?