Plenty of Pros and one big 'Cork Con' over the wall from €1.2m Shrewsbury Downs home 

ANYONE remember the most expensive house sale in Ireland? It was Walford, a Shrewsbury Road home that sold in 2005 for a mind-bending €58m, linked to Seán Dunne, the self-styled Baron of Ballsbridge, whose tangled finances continue to generate headlines here and overseas.

Real estate prices on this sought-after thoroughfare have always been eye-watering. For anyone who played Monopoly prior to 2000, Shrewsbury was the road everyone aspired to own. And while it didn’t make the cut in Hasbro’s noughties revamp of the board game, there’s a generation that will remember it as symbolizing the pinnacle of kitchen-table empire-building.

Perhaps as a nod to the cachet the name carried in Ireland’s Monopoly-obsessed households of the ‘80s (who among you didn’t have the board game?), it made its way to the Cork City suburb of Ballinlough.

A company called Broomcourt Developments, under builder Dan Cahalane, chose it for their new, upmarket scheme, at the Ballintemple end of the Ballinlough Road, where homes of a magnitude not commonplace in the area emerged. While much of Ballinlough consisted of three-bed pebble-dashed semis, built in the ‘50s and ‘60s, here was a development of very large, detached homes, starting with Shrewsbury in the ‘70s, followed in the early ‘80s by adjoining Shrewsbury Downs. The latter, designed by Waterford-based architect John F Santry, and comprised of 28 imposing redbricks, with a Georgian sensibility thanks to white portico and pillars, was unlike any other estate in the southside suburb.

One of the first into these in-demand homes on former market garden lands was the couple that bought No 7, called Lynbar, who had initially intended to settle in Bishopstown, but changed their minds after a period spent renting in Ballinlough. They found it more convenient to the city, with a great choice of schools and sporting facilities. As a matter of fact, Lynbar has the distinction of being the only home in Ballinlough with a pedestrian entrance directly into the grounds of neighbouring Cork Constitution Rugby Club grounds. After years of wayward balls landing unceremoniously in their back garden, an agreement was reached with the club for a gate to be installed. It works both ways. Players can retrieve balls and the family living in Lynbar has the niftiest shortcut to a pitch that you will ever see.

They also have a ringside seat to all the fixtures via an extended half round window on the half landing or through the back bedroom window, which overlooks the pitch. 

It’s surely the dream home for a family of rugby-mad youngsters, particularly anyone playing with Cork Con.

The family that grew up in No 7 did become members of Cork Con but the fun and games didn’t end there. For years, what is now a Hamptons-style open-plan lounge in their home was a fully-fledged snooker room, and before that, a garage and small family room.

The kids made great use of the snooker room, which could be viewed through a hatch from the then galley kitchen, allowing the mum to keep an eye on proceedings. There was a dart board too but there’s no evidence anywhere of damage due to bounce outs or missing the target as the rooms underwent an extensive and expensive upgrade seven years ago. Walls were taken down and fireplace positions switched around, so that instead of a galley kitchen with dining area and a separate snooker room, you have one bright, voluminous space.

 It’s very Long Island: cool colours, chic feel, great lighting.

 A giant marble island dominates the kitchen area which is well lit by two skylights; the dining area is next to French doors to one of three patios; the lounge is kingsize.

 Where there was once a single bay window, there are now two circular bays, one in the form of French doors, which open to the front of the house.

The upgrade to the main living area at Lynbar was one of a series of upgrades carried out by the owners at regular intervals over the years, since they bought the house in 1981, when they paid the not inconsiderable sum of IR£91,000. Average houses prices at the time were about half that amount, according to CSO figures. Only a handful of Shrewsbury Downs homes were completed when they moved in and just three were occupied. Building work continued around the estate for the next two years.

Their own building work started with the garage conversion about 30 years ago, as well as an attic conversion, where you will now find a shower room and a separate open storage space.

 It’s well lit and could work as a home office or a teen den.

“We invested any time we had money. We did substantial work about once every 10 years,” the woman of the house says.

At another stage, they invested in improving the insulation, pumping walls and dry lining. New windows installed seven years ago as part of the overhaul of the main living space are triple glazed. For a 1980s home, No 7 has a very commendable B2 energy rating.

Subsidence work was done as well.

“It means all the paths around the house are level and the only step is at the front door,” the owners say.

The lawns are level too and expertly laid out. More than 40 years of planting by the woman of the house has created a terrific array of mature trees and shrubbery. 

A Silver Spruce to the rear is a standout feature, bought from gardener Charlie Wilkinson many moons ago “for a ferocious price”. It has more than repaid the investment, providing shelter and a touch of elegance. There’s a small garden pond too, good for biodiversity.

Lynbar is on a quarter of an acre all told, with lawn to the side and rear, and some more out front, alongside the driveway, where there’s plenty of parking inside electric gates. 

There’s a built in BBQ outback and two other patio areas too and it’s all nicely enclosed thanks to its corner site location. 

The fact that Cork Con grounds are over the back wall means it’s not overlooked by other homes, nor will it ever be, unlike some of its neighbours, who are toe-to-toe with 75-unit Aylesbury, the only new development in the Ballinlough/Ballintemple area in decades. Aylesbury, ostensibly the Shrewsbury of the 2020s, had its first re-sale earlier this year when No 4 sold for €955,000, a staggering 41% increase on its first outing in 2019, when it went for €675,000.

Lynbar has a guide price of €1.2m and is already under offer above the asking despite being new to market. If it does sell at or above the guide, it will set a new house price record for Ballinlough. Coincidentally, that record is held by the same auctioneer involved here, Kevin Barry of Barry Auctioneers. Mr Barry sold Hayfield House in Somerton Park in 2016 for around the €1m mark. Barry Auctioneers also sold Janeville on nearby Blackrock Road for €1.25m last year.

 It was smaller than Lynbar but has similarities: built in the ‘80s, large corner site, private pedestrian gate/shortcut from the rear garden onto Boreenmanna Road, home to the GAA stadium, Páirc Uí Rinn. The stadium is close to the rear of Lynbar, screened by a towering row of trees Lynbar has served its first set of owners well and they are longer in Shrewsbury Downs now than anyone else. They say ownership is returning to young families and that the very large green areas out front are becoming active again.

“When our kids were growing up, there were 80 or so kids in the park and they’d all be out playing football on the greens,” the owners say. They’d all be out cycling too, in the safety of the cul-de-sac. Other days, they’d be busy potting the black at No 7. That snooker-room-turned lounge is now great for entertaining, with its big fireplace and circulation space and ease of access to the kitchen/dining area.

 There’s a separate dining room too, and, across the hallway, another kingsize sitting room, easily able to accommodate a feature marble fireplace, a piano, a couple of sofas and several large pieces of furniture. It runs the depth of the house and French doors open to a patio at the rear.

A door from the utility opens to the rear too and next to the utility is a guest WC.

There’s a glut of rooms upstairs: a main bedroom with en suite and huge walk-in wardrobe, (which was an attic space but was converted, at the owner’s request); a second en suite bedroom and three other bedrooms and a main bathroom. The main attic, overhead again, is also converted.

At just under 300 sq m, Lynbar is not your average family home. It’s at the top end of what’s on offer in Ballinlough, a well-settled, well-served suburb, that’s more affordable than neighbouring Blackrock.

It’s a little closer too to Douglas village and Cork City centre is within walking distance.

That it’s already under offer above the €1.2m guide doesn’t surprise Mr Barry, who says it’s “an exceptional detached home in a highly desirable location”, with schools and public transport on the doorstep.

VERDICT: Expect a new price record to be set in Ballinlough. Terrific trade-up family home with obvious location benefits.