‘We used a saw to cut a hole into the wall and realised it was an old back stairs area' – hidden tunnels and secret rooms in Co Cork

Irish Independent

3 hours ago

Asking price: €1.6m
Agent: Hegarty Properties [phone]
A hidden tunnel, a secret room and links to the Knights Templar lend plenty of intriguing lore to historic Carewswood House, a five-bedroom, 4,823 sq ft pocket mansion which was originally constructed as a dower house to Castlemartyr House, now a resort hotel.
Sitting on three acres, Carewswood still has the boarded up tunnel running from its basement area which likely served a dual purpose for the dowagers (widowed mothers or unmarried sisters) of the Earls of Shannon, who constructed Castlemartyr in the 18th century.
While the dowager could walk back and forth to the 'Big House' along its covered 2km-plus length, without being exposed to the elements, the tunnel also provided for a failsafe escape in either direction back in fraught times when the natives were a good deal more antsy.
Castlemartyr House, part of the Castlemartyr Resort, is beside the castle founded by the Knights Templar in 1210 under the leadership of Richard de Clare, better known as Strongbow.
Following the seizure of the estate after the Geraldine Wars, these lands were handed over to Sir Walter Raleigh who later sold them on in 1602 to the Earl of Shannon. Earl Richard Boyle constructed an estate home there in the 1700s, and Carewswood followed, likely in 1814, just 2.4km away.
'In those days, the mother of the heir moved out of the house once her husband passed away and the son and heir remarried and took over the main house, and she would have lived here,' says its owner Gill Hornibrook, who comes from the locality. She bought the property in 1996 with her husband, the late Jack Hornibrook who headed up Hornibrook Builders.
The couple had been living in nearby Glendonagh House, a 14-bedroom estate house, which they'd transformed into private nursing home. 'Glendonagh was a Victorian-style house and we'd always wanted a Georgian home,' she says. 'We were attracted to the size of Carewswood. It was the perfect place to raise our four daughters.'
The previous owners had added a new roof, a maple floor in the kitchen and a mahogany floor in the dining room, both of which came from an old hotel in Midleton.
'It was a very basic Georgian house when we bought it but we did a major amount of work on it.'
The reception rooms include a sitting room, a dining room and a TV room, all of which the couple updated and redecorated. 'We removed all of the old wallpaper and re-plastered and painted the walls, and had the plasterwork in the high ceilings repaired.'
They added a front porch with French doors to the south-east facing front and insulated the walls throughout, contributing to its C-BER rating, unusual in a house this age.
'Given that my husband already had a team of craftsmen working for him, everything was done to a very high standard,' she says. 'In the hallway, for example, we searched everywhere to find old limestone to replace the existing slabs. It proved impossible, so we laid Travertine marble instead.'
In the kitchen, they installed an Aga stove and had bespoke white solid wood units constructed and added a white dresser and a Belfast sink in the island. 'The island counter is teak and came from a night club,' explains Hornibrook. 'Everyone who comes into the kitchen comments on it.'
Off the kitchen are two utility rooms. It opens to an east-facing sunroom which has underfloor heating. 'It's a lovely comfortable room that gets the sun all day,' she adds.
Whilst renovating it, the couple came across a secret room which was boarded-up. 'My husband calculated that there was six feet of space extra between the wall and the door and thought there had to be something there. One of his carpenters used a saw to cut a hole that allowed us to see into the space and we realised it was an old back stairs area.'
The rediscovered room was renovated and turned into a traditional bar which has high stools, a piano and seating along the wall.
'We've had some great family parties here,' says Hornibrook. 'All four of my daughters got married in Castlemartyr Resort and all of their 'day two parties' were held in the house.'
There's also original granite steps leading to a basement, which houses a pool table. 'The steps are quite worn and we think that the same servants probably went between the two houses by foot.'
Upstairs, there are five double bedrooms, all with en suite bathrooms (added by the couple). 'We've gone to great trouble to maintain the Georgian style in all of the rooms. It's a comfortable house without being ostentatious, and everyone feels at home here.' There's an outdoor courtyard at the back which they renovated in a Mediterranean style with Indian sandstone underfoot. Here, there's an outdoor office, a potting room for the garden and an outdoor bathroom.
The original walls surrounding the estate still stand and there's a 1km driveway leading up to it. The grounds contains a Koi pond, a fountain and oak trees that are over 200 years old. The house comes with one-bedroom Gate Lodge, which they've also renovated. 'It had a tree growing in it when we bought the house,' laughs Hornibrook.
Sadly, husband Jack died in 2023 so she's now downsizing to a house in Kinsale. 'I hope a family with young children buys it and looks after it because, really, we're just custodians of houses like this.' Hegarty Properties seeks €1.6m.