Homes at Cork's Horsehead House coming of age, and to market, from €495k

A NEW HOMES development by Cork harbour’s Horsehead House is finally coming of age, aged 21 years, having started on site in 2002, but only finally coming for completion, and today for sale, as 2023 comes to an end.

Having successfully turned the corner is The Crescent, a scheme of eight, three-storey upmarket houses built in an arc shape, in the former grounds of the early 19th century Tudor revival Horsehead House overlooking the waters of Cork’s inner harbour and Marino Point. the ‘original’ itself went up for sale in late spring guiding €1.95m via agent Trevor O’Sullivan of Lisney SIR.

The pristinely restoredc7,000 sq ft Horsehead House on two retained acres (designed by Sir Thomas and Kearns Deane for the Lane family of Frankfield House) has been in advanced sale negotiations with a top bidder for several months now, whilst the ‘newer’ detached homes built in its six acres of grounds from the 2000s have been steady sellers, at up to and over €1m of late, with the most recent at €1.525m.

One of the very largest yellow/mellow brick Regency style homes (all designed by UK based architects Melville Dunbar, and quite similar to Abington in Malahide in north Dublin) made c €2m back in the early 2000s, and that was when The Crescent also started to come out of the ground.

However, the priority at the time for Horsehead House’s owner, Meathman and niche developer Tom McEntaggart, was the big and undoubtedly impressive retro-looking one-offs (there’s a variety of styles and sizes). Thus, The Crescent was late to start construction, and was not surprisingly hit by the crash that came to pass in 2007/2008 and whose after-shocks long lingered after.

The eight houses in The Crescent were effectively ‘parked up’ for the duration, having been roofed and weather-proofed, and work only really started back in the past year or so, with a whole new burst of energy and commitment.

The end is in sight, with a family moving into the biggest, No 8 at the top or higher end of The Crescent, another in the middle is also sold and now No 1 is the first of the six being put to the open market.

End of terrace, with gable windows for harbour views and an extra big garden plus additional adjacent parking to the side, it comes to market with a €525,000 guide, but may be sold for more: it’s not a case of whoever signs first, but who pays the most and Lisney agent Mr O’Sullivan says No 2 is almost right behind it in terms of finishing and prepping for sale, guiding form €495,000.

Each is slightly different in size and internal scale, and as the houses are slotted into a crescent shape and thus variations on a ‘wedge’ many of the rooms are slightly off-square: “They are not easy to build and to finish,” says hands-on developer Tom McEntaggart who readily admits to being very glad to be at the final push towards the finish line.

Despite the delay in getting to this last stage (we’re talking two decades, remember) there’s no sense at all of them being rushed, and there’s a number of quality features which will mark them out for buyers: they are far from typical townhouses, for sure.

Among them are the mature grounds front and back, with old oak trees plus an original gate lodge at the back boundary visible from most, if not all. Then there’s the shared entrance off the road on the Cork side of Passage West, just as the harbour waters hove into first glimpses, shared with the 12 big detacheds in the even higher-end Horsehead scheme further inside.

The upper floors of the eight here on the left of entry in The Crescent look out variously over the original Horsehead House and its many chimneys, and towards the more recent large detacheds, with water views, many mature trees and, to the back and south, toward farmland above Passage West and the back or higher Rochestown road.

Add in the maturity and privacy of The Crescent’s grounds already well mabedded in (laurel hedges are in for years now, and bin stores are well-placed behind individual sliding doors in the generous parking area) and there’ll be quite the sense of a well-settled scheme in the next few months: a few of The Crescent’s exteriors are to get changes of paint colours too, likely going for a more muted overall impression.

Features internally include a bit of extra height in the ceilings, wide halls/entrance lobbies with tiled floors and, a particularly nice touch, white marble shelves on top of hall radiators which warm up beautifully to the touch when heating’s on in these A3-rated homes, plus mahogany trim on stairs handrails, tulip wood on the treads, and stainless steel caps on the newel posts on the upper floors.

SANITARY ware and tiling is to a high standard (workmanship on finishes is impressive), and the layout sees a very large kitchen/dining/family room at ground level plus guest WC.

The next level up has a large first floor living room with bay window, an en suite master bedroom to the back and three top floor bedrooms with a shower room to serve them; the houses don’t have a bath in current layouts and, unusually, nor do they have utility rooms at ground level.

Foundations and slabs with insulation under base floors are in place behind each for orangeries or sunrooms to be easily added on, past rear double doors, and a few on the terrace (Nos 3 and 4) have steel RSJ frames up for just such a possibility, indicating this potential, with back gardens big enough to accommodate such add-ons if desired.

Buyers in any case will get a PC sum of €12,000 towards kitchens and built-ins, with Tom McEntaggart noting kitchens are such a personal choice and budgets so elastic, able to go from modest to immodest sums that he decided to leave these to the future occupants to decide on, but other than those discretionary spends they’ll be handed over in move-in condition.

As No 8 is gone, No 1 is likely to be the next prize, bookending the curved terrace run and coming as it does with a triple aspect kitchen/living/dining and extra-large site with separate parking; a stunning first floor oak parquet herringbone-floored living room and landing with rooms’ shape inlaid in mahogany strips.

The launch price of No 1 is €525,000, and others are from €495,000, but Lisney Sotheby’s IR allows that bidding may push sale prices above those and so the pricing of Nos 3, 5, 6, and 7 will also be variable as they get fully finished out over the coming months.

Buyers are likely to be from a cross section, including traders-down from larger and period homes (these are three-storeys tall with first floor main or formal living rooms) as well as relocators, liking the chance to buy new, in such a settled and well-regarded niche setting by the harbour with a ‘halo’ effect from the Horsehead neighbours as a strong sales plus.

There, builder David Walsh (ex Rockforest and who did Greenfields on the Well Road among other schemes) has four semi-ds and five detacheds, from 1,550 sq ft up to 1,900 sq ft in a cul de sac greenfield setting, now advancing in construction for 2024 completion. Prices there are €810,000 for the four-bed semis and €950,000/€960,000 for the larger Hettyfield Gardens detacheds.

VERDICT: Long time coming at Horsehead, and just in time for a key handover for their very own 21sts.....