By Irishexaminer.com,Property Editor Tommy Barker

Copyright irishexaminer

DEEP, deep roots in Cork’s history, both industrial, harbour and maritime, and slightly inland as a local period home of note come with the expansive property offer at Kilroan House at Brooklodge, Glanmire.

Set just north of what’s now the M8 east of Cork City on Brook Hill, the late Victorian era house, some 4,800 sq ft of stature on 13 acres, was bought by the already then long-established Cork business family the Punches in 1920, and has been three generations in their care since.

The entrepreneurial Punch family had business roots back to the 1850s, with an Abigail Punch retailing on South Main St, specialising in teas and later coffees among other provisions, with later premises on Patrick St and Academy St.

Later the family branded into other goods, including developing shoe polishes, leather creams, cleaning and fabric care products, had a multi-storey mill/factory by the Glashaboy river in Glanmire and was a major employer locally across its burgeoning interests, with a second premises across the river: it subsequently moved to a modern factory in Little Island several decades ago and was family run until a sale in 2006.

Kilroan House has stayed in family care since it was bought by a John Punch in the 1920s, and he subsequently acquired and integrated salvage materials into his home from a White Star liner, the 1901-built SS Celtic, which — having survived mines and torpedoes in the First World War — got shipwrecked on the Cow and Calf rocks at the mouth of Cork harbour in December 1928.

Items from the SS Celtic were salvaged and repurposed over the next several years, including beams, bookcases, stairs, doors, furniture, portholes, etc, ending up in private homes in the city and Ringaskiddy, in the Long Valley bar on Winthrop St, and here too, at Kilroan House.

Dark-hued wood panelling from the SS Celtic features here now in several rooms and landings: it’s an early example of successful repurposing, high and dry in this already visually engaging substantial home which was heading up to 50 years of age when enhanced with interior timbers that had crossed the Atlantic (Liverpool to New York) many times.

Fast forward through the generations and the Punch family are now selling Kilroan House, country in style and origins but now with a city coming out to meet it: it’s listed with estate agent Lawrence Sweeney of Savills, who gives it a €1.5m AMV, for a multi-faceted and fascinating property mix.

Among the many elements to its credit are size and scale over two levels with rear annex, architectural authenticity; a one-bed gate lodge; coachhouse and stables; stunning woodland surrounds; a hard surface tennis court; glasshouse; outbuildings which include garage, stores and workshops, and — not least, acreage with future possible development scope given the edge of Glanmire location.

It’s near an old cemetery, the final multi-denominational resting place for both Catholics and Protestants (Ballyluchra) and church ruins, and stands of 13 farm and wooded acres today. Designed in a neo-Tudor style, it has a distinctive three-bay façade with gablet and projecting gabled end bays, with heraldic motifs, mullioned and transomed windows, double leaf front door and ogee arch, plus ornate bargeboards among many other distinguishing features, as recognised by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.

For its age, it’s in robust physical shape, but clearly is ‘of its time’, dated but maintained, and has a lowly G BER, with a rating indicating it’s not a protected structure. Approached via a long avenue to a forecourt with beech hedging, its wider grounds include tillage, grazing, and more landscaped and ornamental planting that includes rhododendron, azaleas, acers, magnolias and carpets of bluebells come spring.

Savills’ Lawrence Sweeney bills it “a beautiful Victorian county house, on extremely private and mature grounds, 8kms from Cork City centre,” and its sale come after Savills got a recorded €1.46m for Poulacurry House on nationally noted gardens in Glanmire, also a period home. It sold on c 5 acres, with its vendors retaining three zoned acres adjunct.

Also gone ‘sale agreed’ in the Glanmire period home sector is Woodview House, a Georgian original on 0.6 acres on Church Hill, in immaculate order, understood to have made c its €1.45m AMV via ERA Downey McCarthy … so the demand for period buys in the locale is evident in the broader €1m to €2m sector.

Those two sales — Woodview and Poulacurry — are located in what’s now an expanded city boundary, while Kilroan retains a County Cork address as the M8 is the divide point: there’s a city-bound bus stop near Brooklodge just c 700m from Kilroan’s modest-looking stone entrance and winsome gate lodge.

On the wider front, Glanmire is one of the targeted growth areas for Metropolitan Cork, with major house building totalling many hundreds of homes due to start at the O’Flynn Group’s Dunkathel House in coming months after a recent planning grant: Dunkathel has been two decades in the wings.

“Homes of this scale and setting so close to the city are exceptionally rare. There may also be long-term development potential (subject to planning), making this a remarkable investment opportunity as well as a dream home,” says Savills’ Mr Sweeney, adding: “While the house would benefit from modernisation, it offers a blank canvas to create a truly special country home: Kilroan House is a rare find.”

A mature wisteria beards the double leaf entry doors to a gracious hall, with a dual-aspect sitting room (with marble fireplace and original cornicing) on the left, with a second reception across the hall with garden views. An inner hall goes to a west-facing dining room, again “grand in scale” and with decorative ceilings and period fireplace.

A dated large kitchen has other garden views, with a back hall leading with pantry, back kitchen, stores, and access to a back stairs for what is, in effect, a long annex with six overhead bedrooms.

The grander bedrooms are in the front main section up the more formal stairs, with double aspect (south and west) main and three others plus a drawing room and many period features remain intact throughout, say Savills.

VERDICT: The real deal, with a polished period home patina, and gardens and grounds to luxuriate in and around. Such a lovely project, and future potential for adding value too.