Granny’s got style: Inside the €1.1m Cork home with a very glamorous granny flat

The five-bedroom property offers a detached two-bedroom apartment, mature gardens and countryside views just 5km from Ballincollig

3 Cúl Bán, Killumney, Ovens, Co Cork. Pictures: Jim Rocks/MediaPro

Ovens, Co Cork
€1.1m
Size	264 sq m (2,842 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5 + 2
Bathrooms	4 + 1
BER	C2

Forget the glorified bedrooms and basic kitchenettes traditionally associated with granny flats. The glamorous version at this Ovens home will halt the click of knitting needles all over the country.

More boutique apartment than back-garden bolt-on, it’s of a standard that should make granny very happy indeed, assuming she’s not competing with adult grandchildren for private living space.

Even if she is, the problem is easily resolved at this home in the niche scheme of Cúl Bán, near Ovens/Killumney village, because the main house has enough room to cater for a small platoon.

The large five-bed has been a generous family home for Lorraine and Peter O’Sullivan, who bought the site it was built on 23 years ago.

“We were last in, it was the only site left,” says Lorraine, adding that they also acquired the house design from the site vendor. She had one ready to go, drawn up by Lakewood Design.

“I liked her design, so we stuck with it,” Lorraine says.

All but three of the 10 homes in Cúl Bán are built to individual designs. The trio of lookalikes were done by the builder who started the development 28 years ago, but later sold off the remaining sites. It’s a vote of confidence in the neighbourhood that just one house has come up for sale since.

“With the exception of last year, not a single house went up for sale in 28 years,” says Lorraine. That was 5,No 7 Cúl Bán, a five-bed detached property, which sold in March for €82000. It’s on the price register, logged as No 7 Culban.

The house now on the market — No 3 — is also a five-bed detached, but with the trump card of that oh-so-snazzy ‘granny flat’. Previously a garage , it was converted and extended by the owners (they also built a new garage) and includes a generous, open-plan living space (kitchen/dining/lounge, pictured, centre right), two bedrooms (a single and a double), a small utility, and a shower room. It’s a bungalow in all but name.

For new owners, the possibilities of the granny flat include: Rental income/accommodation for adult children/grandparent accommodation.

As it’s detached from the main house, there’s a degree of privacy, albeit there’s scope to rework the driveway to create a separate vehicular entrance, while the garden could also be fenced off. It could double, too, as a work studio, although the main house has remote working covered: There’s a downstairs home office, while a playroom with French doors to the rear garden can be flexible, too.

Reception rooms at No 3 are either side of a central, signature staircase that splits in two to create a galleried landing.

The main bedroom is more like a suite, with walk-in-wardrobe and en suite. Two more doubles share a Jack and Jill bathroom.

The favourite space downstairs includes several interconnected areas: A living room with double doors to the kitchen/dining room, linked, in turn, to a sunroom, where patio doors open to a south-facing garden. Light and space are in generous supply.

The site was landscaped in the early days and it’s proof of the return when you invest up front. Trees are mature and driveway shrubs, planted in pebbled beds, are attractive and easily maintained. As the house is in a hollow, it’s well shielded from passersby. At any rate, the boundaries are lined with mature hedging. The view outback is rolling countryside as far as the eye can see. It’s as peaceful and quiet as can be, yet just 5km to Ballincollig and within walking distance of Killumney village, where the couple’s daughter, Shannon, a hairdresser, runs Salon 28.

“In the past, people considered Ovens/Killumney too far out, but not anymore. It’s as popular now as Waterfall or Model Farm Rd,” says Norma Healy, of Sherry FitzGerald, who is handling the sale. She notes how close it is to Ovens National School and to Éire Óg GAA club. Dell Technologies Ovens campus is a few minutes’ drive away, as is the Lee Valley Golf Club.

The €1.1m price tag is geared at traders up; perhaps medics based in hospitals in the western suburbs or executives at the nearby Dell Technologies campus? Whoever the buyer is will have the benefit of two homes for less than you might expect.

VERDICT: Fine property, with quick access to major road networks. Ideal trade-up, especially if granny or grandad are part of the household. The granny flat is the star turn.