Verulam, a house built in 1806 on more than an acre of terraced gardens running down to the river Lee, underlines the better value housebuyers get in Cork city compared to Dublin.

Sherry FitzGerald in Cork is asking €1.85 million for the five-bedroom house on Sunday’s Well Road, billing it as one of the best family homes to come on the market in the city this year.

The owners for nearly 30 years are selling it because their family has grown up.

0 of 4

They’ll be leaving behind a beautifully restored house, which offers formal Georgian elegance in its main rooms and modern family comfort in the kitchen, large conservatory and bathrooms – plus much more besides, such as an original bricked wine cellar, a private well and a ruined folly at the bottom of the garden.

Stopped in tracks

Viewers unfamiliar with these houses on Sunday’s Well Road, not far from the middle of Cork, will be stopped in their tracks when they step inside. From the road there is no hint of what lies behind the front door set into a blank wall.

The official National Inventory of Architectural Heritage notes these street entrances are a feature repeated along Sunday’s Well Road, allowing for privacy to the street front and “creating a sense of exclusion from the outside world for the residents within”.

The house reveals itself only when one gets inside. The view from the hall is through to the drawing room, with tall Georgian windows overlooking the long back garden down to the river. Beyond is the green space of Fitzgerald Park, one of Cork’s most attractive public parks and easily accessible from Verulam across the nearby “shaky bridge”.

It’s a large detached house – hall floor over garden level – in tiptop condition. Essentially, it’s five bedrooms, five reception rooms, a host of smaller back-up rooms such as a pantry, utility room, and so on, two full bathrooms and an en suite shower room, an integral garage for offstreet parking for a couple of cars, plus a completely self-contained apartment, which could be rented out.

There are two fine reception rooms on the hall floor overlooking the back garden and two more, plus the conservatory, at garden level, also looking out on the garden.The reception rooms have original fireplaces (marble in two rooms, slate in the other two), ornate ceiling work and other period features, including the dominant windows. The main rooms are all exceptionally bright, partly because of their south-facing aspect, but also as the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage notes, there is a high ratio of glazing to wall on the south elevation, which makes the best of the sunlight and the views.

Proportions everywhere are on a grand scale. The hallways on both floors are big enough for several pieces of freestanding furniture. The main bedroom, with a magnificent picture window over the garden, is the size of a studio apartment.

The garden is part of the glory of the house. The owners say it’s been “a garden for all seasons” and the views have made them intensely aware of the changes from month to month. In spring and summer, the greenery gives leafy privacy and shade; in the winter, when the leaves fall away, the city skyscape opens up in the distance.

The garden has been as well- tended as the house. There was a good deal to work with from the start – a south-facing walled garden, tiered on three levels, laid out in the classic Victorian rectangular format, with a mix of evergreen and deciduous planting. But over the last three decades, it has been maintained and refreshed to a very high level. New owners will inherit the line of Tai-Haku cherry trees, which bloom in spring in the middle garden tier; they can pick apples, pears and figs. There are roses, hydrangeas, camellias, three types of magnolia, clematis and much more.

And if they’re not keen gardeners themselves, there’s a wide-railed terrace across the back of the house from which to view it all. There are the same garden views from the decking outside the conservatory and the patio, which opens through double doors from the kitchen.

Because much of the shelving, wardrobes and other fittings have been custom-built for the house, they are included in the sale. So too is the high- quality curtaining, the floor coverings throughout the house and the Aga in the kitchen.

Sheila O’Flynn in Sherry FitzGerald expects strong interest from Cork residents seeking to trade up, as well as from international buyers not tied to a particular location.

For the latter group, the house should look like good value compared to many other European cities with good air connections.