Cobh, Cork Harbour €1.15 million Size 500 sq m + 184 sq m (5,920 sq ft + 1,980 sq ft) Bedrooms 6 Bathrooms 6 BER Exempt KNOCKEVEN House is large slice of Cobh history. With roots back to the mid 1800s, the sizeable Victorian-era Italianate villa home on exceptionally private grounds with trees almost as old as the house itself was lived in by the Harty family, the Barrys and the Rushbrookes – the latter giving their name to the Cobh suburb with its remove for the bustle of the quays, and with a commuter train station almost on its doorstep.
More recently, Knockeven House has been home to the Mulhaire family who bought it in 1986, who reared a family of three children here who had acres of play space, trees to climb, a basement to hide out in, and the fun of a level lawn for ball kicking, on what earlier had been a grass tennis court, indicative of the grandeur the house was first built to enjoy. Parents Pam and John had come to Cobh in the 1970s to run a very successful supermarket, a Londis, in Cobh’s Newtown, and later bravely bought Knockeven House which at the time almost 40 years ago needed work. First, it was their home, later with children grown and entrepreneurial in their core they decided to open it as an upmarket, luxury guesthouse after they sold the shop.
Laois man John might have had ideas of retirement: Kilkenny woman Pam had other ideas, so they engaged the services of interior designer Fiona O’Keeffe, put an assured mark on the house’s main bedrooms (plus fitted in en suites) and they took to the hospitality business like ducks to orange sauce. Knockeven got top awards for comfort and welcome, and for Pam’s breakfasts (scones especially) and she kept the business going after John passed away in 2013. After another decade, a new chapter beckons for Knockeven: Pam died earlier this year, after a brief post-diagnosis illness, but not before serving breakfast to 11 guests the day she headed to the hospital, her adult children note proudly of her spirit.
Now, paying guest accommodation days might been ending at Knockeven, but the work done to the house itself is testament to the couple’s work ethic, says one of the family, saying it’s being sold with reluctance, as none of the three is in a position to take it on themselves. Fresh to market this week with estate agent Trevor O’Sullivan of Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty, it’s priced at €1.15 million and is being pitched as almost certainly set to return to private family use, with grace and proportion in its bones, as well as more than a hint of grandeur, done as it is in the Italianate style, with large arched first floor Venetian windows and Tuscan-style columns in the porch with a very large five-pane fanlight over the entrance door.
Interior wise, it’s on a grand scale, but not too grand, with wide and deep hall and high ceilings, up to 12’ at ground level: it’s a home that you’ll never feel squeezed in, that’s for sure. Evidence of the height is best witnessed in the very unusual and impressive double doors between the left side’s main reception, the drawing room and the dining rooms with orangery off it to the back: not only are the doors tall, on each side they come in two hinged section, with a smaller panel above the taller lower one. Diners at the B&B would have shared a communal breakfast table, in the ‘Hidden Ireland’ style of hospitality to encourage conversation and sociable moments, and for next owners there’s little to change to make it fully domestic again: just take out the reception desk in the hall by the delicate staircase.
The house has four excellent bedrooms up front, each with en suites created, and has two more to the back in what might have been termed the ‘service wing,‘ and in the past the rear section downstairs has even been used as a separate rental as it has its own option extra external access. Also changed over the years was the removal of the internal stairs from the main ground/mid-level to the over-ground basement which is in quite a raw/untouched state, and still has the brick arched wine cellar and old brick chimney breast from the 19th century. Next owners might want to reinstate this link, and options for the lower-most level include games/snooker room, home cinema, home office, and a whole lot more: think of a use and you’ll find space for it.
Describing the house as ‘distinguished,’ Lisney SIR’s Trevor O’Sullivan puts the house’s floor area at just under 6,000 sq ft, with a further c 2,000 sq ft in the basement, and says it “embodies the quintessential allure of the Victorian era, with an exquisite blend of classical architecture with modern luxury.” The same agent is now sale agreed on the c 2,500 sq ft 4 Knockeven to the back of Knockeven House, one of four high quality new builds done and sold off by the Mulhaires in 2007 and which appeared here in spring with a €850,000 AMV. Those four were built on the former orchard to the rear of the main Victorian ‘original’, which the family had acquired in ’86 from the Northern Ireland Brownlow family on c three acres in all.
Now, it’s on 1.7 acres, up a private drive above Knockeven Avenue by Rushbrooke and past quietly impressive slender limestone pillars, with mature trees including Spanish chestnut, Scots pine, beeches and a raft more, with occasional/seasonal Cork harbour/Monkstown views through the tree screen from the upper level. VERDICT: a Cobh finer for sure, with property pedigree and detached status, airy accommodation, and private grounds, but it will need some further spending, especially to maximise the basement’s potential.
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