Ready-made home above major Cork Dunkathel development site on great grounds too

A PLANNING application this month for the first half of over 1,000 new homes at Dunkathel House in Cork’s Glanmire prompts the observation — ‘that old chestnut?’

After all, plans for large scale residential development in the lands behind Leeside’s gem Dunkathel House go back over 20 years — a significant enough chunk of time, even by the standards of a Palladian-era property with roots in the 1790s.

Back around the time moves were being made by the Russell family to sell their home, Dunkathel House (it was bought by O’Flynn Construction for c €24 million) another Cork firm was finishing out its ‘new’ chestnut, a scheme of 36 detached houses called Chestnut Meadows, above Glanmire by Ballinglanna/Glynntown, just inside the M8.

Chestnut Meadows started off around the Millennium Year, with builders Murphy Construction.

In the decades since Chestnut Meadows got wrapped up and O’Flynn’s Dunkathel got parked pending access improvements...: we are now heading into a seventh government; there have been six changes of Cork County Council since; a change of boundaries which now sees Glanmire taken into Cork City Council following boundary changes in 2019.

Oh, and by the time Dunkathel gets out of the stocks from as early as next year, its fate will be overseen by a new planning appeals body, an Coimisiún Pleanála, replacing An Bord Pleanála which twice rejected the original plans for Dunkathel as premature.

In the time that Chestnut Meadows got delivered too, there have been up to 1,000 other homes built at this height above Glanmire, at Woodville and Ballinglanna, and the Price Register shows a dozen resales since 2011 at Chestnut Meadows, with all of the last three selling for over €600,000, with No 5 fetching €680,000 in 2022.

Late 2024 sees the arrival of No 36 Chestnut Meadows, guided at €745,000 by Paul Fenton and Ann O’Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald, who say it’s in superb condition, has over 2,600 sq ft inside and stands on the biggest site of all, a very substantial 0.7 of an acre, in at the very end of Chestnut Meadows.

The brick-faced two-storey/part dormer home is going to appeal to traders-up in this still burgeoning area of the eastern city, but the size and scope of the site/grounds will be the clincher for the right family.

It’s set inside electric access gates, with lots of parking in front while behind there’s a very substantial deck, and a good flow between indoor and outdoor spaces.

Rooms include reception rooms (lounge and sitting room) left and right off a hall, a family room and a kitchen/dining room with clear, glazed sliding doors to the lounge as well as a guest WC and utility, and most rooms have updated, contemporary-style finishes.

Above are four bedrooms, all doubles, one’s en suite and another is a mezzanine-like setting above a lofted family room, with glazed wall.

The back of the house has a southerly aspect and the extensive site (between Fernwood and the M80 is private, add Sherry FitzGerald.

VERDICT: On Chestnut Meadows’ largest site by far — there’s no home in future scheme in Glanmire or almost anywhere else, going to come along again on 0.7 of an acre.