Lotamore, Cork City €995,000 Size 205 sq m (2,208 sq ft) Bedrooms 4 Bathrooms 3 BER A2 Remember that ol’ chestnut “it’s what’s inside that counts”? Turns out, sometimes, it’s what’s outside. While even the most pernickety would struggle to find fault with the interiors at Cregg Lodge, the “real magic”, as the owner says, is out back. Projecting out like a ledge high above Cork City is a long stretch of lawn, healthy, tree-lined, well-tended.
Beyond the ledge is Cregg Lodge’s USP (unique selling point): the land drops away and the wide sweep of the city opens up before you. It looks east, towards Mahon Point and beyond; west, towards the Port of Cork and downwards, towards the river and Tivoli harbour. It’s a real surprise.
There’s no inkling of what’s in store from the front of the house. You need to go in deeper, to the main open-plan living space, for a first glimpse of this treat. In a house with a liberal dose of “wow factors”, the garden/view combo is the headliner.
“The big thing for me is the back garden. It’s where the magic is. It faces south and it has trees that are more than 40 years old, planted by a neighbour back in the 1980s.
“And then there’s the view,” says the owner. When they bought the half-acre site above Burke’s Hill in 2018, it was under a canopy of 70 or so trees. Many were felled to create space for the build, but the owners were careful to ensure that what was left represented a diversity of specimens.
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