Stylish Waterfall home at Earls Well hits market for €1.2m — could set estate price record

LOCAL lore has it that a well or spring in Waterfall was a regular pitstop for some historical notable to water his horses, perhaps while conducting the business of running a vast estate. Some of the speculation centres on the Earl of Bandon, as he may have passed through Waterfall on the road home. The theory works in favour of the original Gaelic name for Waterfall, Tobar an Iarla, or Well of the Earl.While the days of earls are long gone this side of the Irish Sea, Waterfall still has an upmarket sheen. Traditionally favoured by academics and medics, it’s on the right side of Cork City for accessing major hospitals and third-level education facilities. Bishopstown is reachable in minutes, yet Waterfall feels distinctly rural.Twenty-first century developments continue to cement Waterfall’s aura of fashionability.11 Earls WellIn the early noughties, Fleming Construction launched Heatherfield, a scheme of large, detached homes on the city side of Waterfall village, where dozens queued to view the showhouse in Celtic Tiger times. Reports were that some of the Heatherfield units sold for €1m a pop. They’ve never quite returned to those glory days, says the price register, albeit No 35 made €820,000 two years ago, and No 38, currently on the market with Frank V Murphy, is rumoured to be sale agreed at €1.15m.38 Heatherfield is rumoured to be sale agreed in excess of €1mHeatherfield was a talking point in Waterfall until Fleming Construction unveiled plans for an even more ambitious scheme of 42 homes right next door to it, to be built on 30 acres bought from local publicans, the O’Shea family. That estate was Earls Well and it would be built to standards few estates could match. The first five homes lived up to the billing: Detached, O’Mahony Pike designed five-beds, the biggest was just shy of 4,000 sq ft. Unfortunately for the builder, the timing was disastrous and nothing sold as the downturn took hold. Flemings went into liquidation in 2010, one of the first major construction casualties of the collapse, with debts of a staggering €1bn.NAMA entered the frame during the post-crash mop-up and Townmore Construction took on the build work in late 2016. Another dozen homes were delivered — including No 11, featured here — before receivers for the Fleming group sold off the remaining land with full planning permission for 28 homes, which O’Callaghan Properties bought and finished out. The entire estate is now finally completed, fully landscaped, and all homes occupied.no 11 Earls Well To date, resales have been few and far between.Number 11’s arrival to market should, therefore, excite interest among homeowners looking for a quality family trade-up within shouting distance of the city’s western suburbs. Bought by the current owners in 2018, you could scarcely tell it’s been lived in, so good is its condition. Although smaller than the original five in the scheme, it’s still a very generous 237 sq m, and layout and light levels make it feel even bigger.Generous hallway at No 11No 11, towards the back of the development — which is arranged in cul-de-sac clusters, around greens — was sold with a builder’s finish for €603,300 in 2018. Its owners hired an interior designer to get it right inside. Warm, amtico, herringbone-style flooring runs throughout the ground floor, where heating is underfloor; bespoke wall panelling is a prominent feature; impressive ‘media walls’ in the family room and in the kitchen/dining/living room are the product of skilled joinery.Family room with built in media wall As the owner knows a thing or two about kitchens, the one at No 11 looks pretty good. Hand-painted, in-frame, with a large island, quartz worktop, and Belfast sink with insinkerator (garbage disposal), it also comes with a wine fridge and AGA electric range cooker. Bigger household appliances are in the adjoining utility.The island can sit three comfortably, and there’s room for a few more at the dining table in the centre of the open-plan area, where a picture window overlooks the farmer’s field next door.“You get cows peeping in from time to time; it’s great to have that when you are so close to the city, too,” the owner says.The open-plan area also accommodates an attractive lounge space, where glazing covers the entire back wall, overlooking the terrifically generous rear garden. A sliding door leads outside.The house is designed to capitalise on its rear aspect. It faces south west and big windows dominate its rear walls. Wraparound glazing is a feature of both the main, open-plan area and also the family room, where the second of three sets of sliding door leads to the large, sandstone patio. Family roomThe third sliding door is in the study, which has bespoke wall panelling, plantation shutters, and specially-built joinery for storing files and watching television.Generous bedrooms are a theme on the Ducon concrete, slabbed first floor; the main has both a walk-in closet and a quality en suite. All have plantation shutters and there’s a second en suite. A floored attic runs the length of the house and there’s also a garage for storage.StudyThe family aspect to No 11 continues outdoors where the rear is laid to lawn — plenty space for swings/slides/trampoline — while the front drive “can accommodate 10-15 cars”, says the owner. Plenty space for outdoor toysBecause the houses at Earls Well are all on large sites — No 11 is on 0.4a — there’s no sense of being overlooked. Mature hedging and electronic gates reinforce that sense of privacy, not to mention security for the children.The current owners are relocating for family reasons and Norma Healy, of Sherry FitzGerald, is handling the sale. She says 2,550 sq ft No 11 is “the quintessential, modern family home”, ready to go, with a best-in-class, A-3 energy rating.“What’s more, it’s just minutes from Bishopstown and Ballinora national school is just half a mile down the road,” the agent says.Her price for this spacious, stylish home is €1.2m. If it makes the money, it will set a record for the estate. Two larger Earls Well units have already breached €1m, but both were bigger. However, neither was fully finished. VERDICT: The complete package for a family trading up who want to be a stone’s throw from Bishopstown.

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