Myrtleville's €1.4m contemporary home Stella Maris is stellar indeed

Irish Examiner

05-06-2025

ARCHITECT-designed to visually conceal its size and scale, and also to make it look like it might have been an older dwelling which grew over time, Stella Maris is, as the name suggests, a star property by the sea.
Vista beyond
The contemporary build, in a 'broken plan' in two linked sections, is up on a height above Myrtleville, just outside the mouth of Cork harbour, with a sweep of panoramic views of land, sea, and of mushrooming homes in the cleft running down to the beach between Pine Lodge and the former Bunny's at Myrtleville, and also straight out to sea.
It was built in 2008 by a couple with a young family, coming back to Cork from a decade of living in the UK, lured by the appeal of a life by the sea, with all-essential ocean vista, yet near schools and services.
It's quite likely the next occupants of Stella Maris ('Star of the Sea') will be similar: They'll prize the setting, the views, the proximity to beaches, the many access points from inside to outdoors, the contemporary design, and the standard of finish. The only question is will they come from the UK, from elsewhere overseas, from up country, Cork City, or be traders up from Crosshaven?
All will be revealed in the coming weeks, as Stella Maris arrives for sale and for summer 2025 viewings.
Stella Maris is listed with a €1.4m AMV, with agents Stuart O'Grady and Ann O'Mahony, of Sherry FitzGerald, who describe the layout as a bit unconventional, but dictated by the site and the chance to grasp the most of the elevated coastal vistas beyond.
It's one of a handful of homes in the wider Crosshaven district launched at €1m+, coming on the back of a real rise in values and prices paid for better stock out this neck of the wood, with those all-important water vistas.
Back three years ago, Sherry FitzGerald got €1.275m for a contemporary home near here, called Nirvana. Now, they have good early interest in a recent, substantial Crosshaven bungalow listing, called Winfield, guiding at €1.3m (it featured here within the last month) and have just gone 'sale agreed' on a former rectory-style, 1,700 sq ft period home at Fennell's Bay, called Fairview, for €836,000, or above its €730,000 AMV or guide price.
Today's Stella Maris replaces an older, previous dormer dwelling on this plot, demolished to make way for this for more substantial family home, with design by architect Peter Stacey, of RORSA.
At the time, that RORSA practice was updating Cork County Council's Rural Design Guide, and hence had an idea on just how to get a home of scale in what otherwise might be seen as a prominent, elevated spot.
The key was reducing the bulk by breaking up the building mass in to sections, in this case a two-storey, rear-bedroom wing with gable facing the road, linking via the central connecting hall to the wedge-shaped and angular family television room to a large, day-use main living, dining, and family room and kitchen, under a tall, monopitch roof, just recently redone in standing seam zinc.
First floor terrace/balcony by main bedroom suite
That (costly) zinc roof, unusually, can be appreciated from a height, as a roof terrace has been created on the mid-ship link section (pic, above), accessed from the first floor's main en-suite bedroom, and from a first-floor office/option further bedroom.
Main bedroom's private en suite
The principal bedroom is luxurious, with large private bathroom with double shower, plus deep bath for soaks by an internal window divide to the bedroom (with Venetian slatted blinds), and has water and shipping views when standing up, while a bespoke timber storage unit at the end of the bed conceals a pop-up television screen.
Main bedroom
There's a lovely sense of 'remove' to these upstairs rooms, almost luxurious and apartment-like in feel (an external staircase could make it almost self-contained).
The balcony/terrace is a prime lookout spot, over the sloping roof line above Myrtleville's myriad and scattered house forms down to the sea and to Bunny's above the western shoreline (soon to revert to private-house use, after decades in the hospitality sector.) Stand up, and you see all, sit down, and you are a lot more sheltered from the wind.
In the two-storey rear section are three bedrooms, one of them en suite, and all have glazed door access to the front garden/patio, and all have a water view/glimpse.
There's also patio access from the mid-section family/television room, via a large sliding door in a largely-glazed end wall, with a further large slider in the ground-floor lounge/home office/gym/play room off the kitchen at the eastern end of this c 60' long front section.
Family living area has patio access
This front kitchen/dining/living wing has the best of the views from inside, with an extensively glazed front façade, with slider in the step-down family section at the western end.
There's a pair of sliders in the more fully glazed dining mid-section, and a tall, fixed window just on the entry point to the multi-use end room.
The kitchen, unsurprisingly, is high-end, with a bank of ovens and integrated coffee maker in pale or baby blue-faced units, topped with dark granite, from long-established French company Schmidt, who had strong Munster sales in the 2000s, with a hub in a peninsula/breakfast bar/room divide section.
Flooring is pale or light oak, in wide plank boards and other internal joinery, is oak also, keeping an overall low-key aesthetic, allowing art and feature lighting to shine.
The main family living space moves the feel of this already airy space from double aspect to triple aspect, down three steps from the dining/kitchen, with green plant screen 'baluster' divide, and with a large wood-burning stove in the gable, and has sliding patio door access to a sandstone patio.
There are several sit-out/patio options, for different times of the day and sun tracking/wind shunning.
Sherry FitzGerald's Ann O'Mahony and Stuart O'Grady say their downsizing vendor's family home has been very well-maintained, since construction in 2008, and is bright, has views from just about every room, lots of storage and bedroom/day room options, with an abundance of space, on 0.4-acre site, within a walk of the beach at Myrtleville and close to services, shops, and schools at Crosshaven, within a commute of Cork and airport.
VERDICT: The €1.4m price tag puts Stella Maris in a quite rarified price league (are there more €1m+ priced homes in the wider Cork market this year that ever before?), but as combined package is going to see competitive bidding to land it for the next, fortunate owners.