6 days ago
Three quarters of an acre to play with at €850k Blackrock home on Castle Road
COMMERCIAL photographer Robert French's black-and-white image of Blackrock Castle, taken in 1865, captures the iconic property from the opposite riverbank, against the dense tree line of Castlemahon estate. Only one other property is visible, the house featured here, Mahon View, on Castle Rd.
Robert French's 1865 photograph of Blackrock Castle, with Mahon View (known then as Riversdale) to the right.
The buildings stand in isolation and there's an air of solitude to the scene.
Fast forward to 1967 and an image from the Irish Examiner archive shows alterations on Castle Rd. A terraced row of possibly fishermen's cottages runs down the side of Mahon View, on Castle Ave.
Irish Examiner archive, 1967
Mahon View has changed, too. It was extended in the late 1940s, by master builder Seán Coughlan, to create two semi-ds. The image shows that housing on the wider hinterland is minimal.
Comparing 'before' and 'after' images makes change tangible in a way words cannot. Contemporary photos of Castle Rd reflect major shifts. Housing estates — Gate Lodge, Sandy Lawn, Sandy Lane — have sprung up.
A number of housing estates have sprung around close to Blackrock Castle Picture: Larry Cummins
A popular peninsular walkway swings out around the estuary beyond Blackrock Castle. The castle looks good, thanks to upgrades.
Upgraded Blackrock Castle is a minute's walk from Mahon View
Extended Mahon View is not vastly different to what it was in 1865, when it was known as Riversdale. Even though it's now one of a pair of semi-ds, the original building is easily identified.
Mahon View
The house next door is now called Riversdale. Mahon View was named by its current owners, the O'Connor family, who moved there in the early 1960s, having bought it from a Mrs O'Driscoll, who both lived there and ran a bakery.
'My parents were living in St Luke's, and came down to take a look in the summer of '61,' their son, Robert O'Connor, says.
'They were in the confectionary trade at the time, so they bought both house and business,' he adds.
His parents supplied confectionary to local shops and Robert recalls tales of Lee swimmers (the river is across the road) darting up the driveway and helping themselves to cakes left cooling outside.
A keen historian, he also recalls the names of previous owners of Mahon View, including the Fogarty family, and, much further back, a Robert Staveley, captain of the Bristol steam packet SS Sabrina, which steamed twice a week between Cork and Bristol taking passengers and freight. Staveley and his wife, Catherine Anne, are thought to have moved to Riversdale around 1869. Captain Staveley died there in 1892 and a newspaper obituary recorded that he had suffered from 'a paralytic attack of a most serious kind, the fatal end of which was, we believe, long foreseen'.
Mahon View was a good home for a sea captain, given its views up river and down estuary. For the O'Connors, all the moving parts that make up Tivoli Docks were part of the dynamic panorama, while the main fixture in that picture was always Blackrock Castle. Mahon View's waterfront location is as much an attraction now as it must have been for Captain Stavely.
Flotilla of fishing boats passing Tivoli Docks on their way to the Port of Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan
The size of the site was a big draw, too. There's three quarters of an acre, mostly to the rear, where a T-shaped garden includes a good stretch of lawn, an old orchard wall (growing your own was as popular in Victorian times as it is now), a 'secret' walled garden off to one side with access to Castle Ave, and a more overgrown section — a biodiversity haven — in the other side of the 'T'.
Long stretch of lawn forms the stem of the 'T', with redbrick orchard wall to the right
Entrance to the 'secret' garden
Biodiversity haven
The scale of what's there prompted Robert to undertake a feasibility study with John Morehead, of Wain Morehead Architects, in Celtic Tiger times.
The conclusion was the land could accommodate four to five units, but the development wasn't pursued. Potential buyers/small developers might be interested? Or new owners could simply decide to enjoy a great big back garden, with glorious throwbacks to the Victorian era. As well as ancient apple and pear trees, Robert and his partner took to growing their own during covid, installing raised planters for fruit and vegetables, a nod to the land's original use as a market garden.
Raised planters
More recently, a patio courtyard was installed at a level below the rear lawn, outside the open-plan country-style kitchen (fitted in the past few years, where new sliding doors off a lounge area make access easy).
Open plan kitchen lounge
Country style kitchen
The patio faces south. A sculpture by renowned Irish artist Michael Quane has pride of place. It's one of a series of impressive artworks dotted about Mahon View, including Robert's own work. He graduated with a master's in fine art from the University of Ulster in 2001, and in 2006, when the university was staging an exhibition celebrating the 25th anniversary of its master's in fine arts programme, he was chosen as the student of 2001. He has exhibited at home and abroad, including Shanghai. A solo photographic exhibition in 2011, in the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts, was inspired by a box of 35mm slides bought at a Berlin flea market.
Mahon View looks like a three-storey home, but the attic is currently closed off. New owners could reinstate the attic stairs or they may have enough accommodation on the existing floors. Three rooms on the second floor are currently in use as bedrooms, but there is scope for more, as one is currently in use as a home office.
Downstairs, the entrance porch has a striking, church-style window with coloured glass, which leads into a high-ceilinged hallway and on to a living room with plenty of original features.
Living room
Church-style window in entrance porch
High ceilinged hallway
To the rear of the living room, through stylish French doors, a sunroom/library room overlooks the back garden.
Sunroom
Just a five-minute walk from Blackrock village, Mahon View is a home of great period charm, but it needs work. The extra investment required has been factored into the €850,000 guide by agent Tim Sullivan, of Timothy Sullivan & Associates.
'It's a do-er upper, but will appeal to a cross section that want to trade up and may well be in Blackrock already. I expect interest from Dublin also,' Mr Sullivan says.
Mahon View, Castle Road
Given the wonderful, elevated setting, and beautiful views of river and castle, not to mention potential for further site development, it could attract buyers banking for family going forward.
Mr Sullivan says the property offers 'enormous potential, with its superb garden/site', as well as the original attic accommodation 'affording the opportunity to enlarge what's already there'. There's scope to do more too with a lean-to utility.
VERDICT:A good deal of investment is needed, but the prize for the buyer is the Holy Trinity of generous site size, prime waterfront setting, and a prestigious Castle Road address.
