Last offered back in 2020, after the first covid lockdown, the expansive Lough Mahon House, with over 7,000sq ft of high-end living space, on 4.7 acres above the Rochestown Road, had a €2.35m asking price; when it didn’t sell, the family took it off the market.
Five years on, the owners, who commissioned the design back in the late 1990s and who moved in in ’99 in time for the millennium, are keen to downsize and so it’s back, still in great order, on even more mature and highly maintained grounds, with a €2.95m AMV.
Atrium-like entrance
At that, it’s clearly in the upper echelons of Cork homes on the market and almost by coincidence comes within a month of a €4m listing, Ravenscourt House, which also has views over the Mahon/Douglas estuary from its perch at the top of the Well Road/Skehard Road.
Ravenscourt launched in the past month guided at €4 million, the biggest asking price in Cork city in since ‘the boom.’
While the period beauty Ravenscourt is effectively suburban, Lough Mahon House is slightly further on from Douglas, out the Rochestown Rd past Hop Island, with considerable privacy and screening, and a panorama in front of it to the north and glimpses to shipping channels where the estuary widens to the inner harbour.
Selling agents are Brendan Bowe and Linda O’Donovan of Bowe Property, who say first viewings start next week, with a fairly even split between overseas and local viewers in the first half a dozen or so inquiries.
Bowe Property are launching it at €2.95m, up by €600,000 in the asking price on the summer 2020 guide: post-covid demand for water-fronting and water-aspected Munster homes has been particularly strong. While Lough Mahon House does not have frontage (the main Cork/Passage West/Monkstown road is under it, as is the hugely popular greenway/blueway walking route from Blackrock), its views are all over the tidal waters of the lough.
The vendors now aiming to up anchor from Lough Mahon had commissioned family friend, architect Brian O’Sullivan, for this substantial one-off, on a rare-sized site. He delivered over all three floors, in an array of rooms for families of all sizes, with the very best of them up front, extensively glazed. Several have access to viewing balconies.
Kitchen with blue Aga
Too hot to handle? There’s also air conditioners in place on a number of ceilings.
One of the five en suite bedrooms
There’s a substantial wine cellar (or for whiskies, given current fashions?); a good-sized home sauna is also right on trend, and a number of rooms are wired for sound, radio, or music of choice with Bose speakers, allowing “a bespoke soundtrack to daily life”, says Bowe, adding that the design is sustainable, with its own well water supply for fountains and water/waterfall features.
Groomed gardens and feature ‘Acer Platanoides Globosum’ trees
Also well-fed are the gardens, with extensive irrigation (19 watering points) set up for the well-established blend of beds, specimen shrubs, and trees, amid hundreds and hundreds of metres of scythed pathways, regularly interspersed with seating bowers and look-out points.
There are five en suite bedrooms; two have generous walk-in ’robes/dressing rooms, along with options for further bedrooms/home office uses or games, three reception rooms, and a top-floor games/billiard room.
Coolmain Castle has a €7.5m AMV
Bowe’s Linda O’Donovan says “every corner of the garden demonstrates meticulous attention to detail, combining form, function, and natural beauty. From winding pathways to sculpted lawns, this extraordinary outdoor sanctuary is both a visual delight and a private retreat, perfectly enhancing the home’s luxurious lifestyle.”
The setting is low key, where suburban Rochestown and Douglas give way to countryside and harbourside before the maritime air of Passage West and Monkstown. A discreet electric gate off Rochestown Road opens to a winding avenue, lined with distinctive tree topiary up to the front door.
VERDICT: Lough Mahon House was one of the biggest home offers back in summer 2020 at €2.35m.
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