East Cork home with wedding-ready gardens and elegant interiors listed for €550k

Teach na Carraige at Ballykilty near Killeagh isn’t just an elegant, spacious, and well-built family home, it is also a great place to hold a garden party or a wedding reception.

Built as the family home of Niall Guerin — a builder responsible for the construction of a good number of high-end, one-off properties around east Cork — it’s a home in which a new owner can sleep easy in the knowledge this has indeed been constructed to a very high standard.

While he built his five-bed home for comfortable family living, he designed the garden with wedding plans in mind and, it was here that he and his wife held their reception which was attended by around 150 guests.

Features in the one acre garden which were specifically included to facilitate outdoor entertaining include a large stone clad semi-open garden building with two brick edged archways and which was, for the big day, fitted out as a bar/ kitchen.

A large patio and a pergola covered tarmac area provided good space for guest seating while the tarmac parking area at the side was perfect for the setting up of a marquee.

Built in 2005 and later extended, the partly stone-fronted dormer property offers 269sq m of living space.

“It’s an architecturally elegant house which has been attractively decorated in neutral colours and fitted with engineered timber throughout and also has a good B2 energy rating,” reveals Adrianna Hegarty of Hegarty Properties, quoting a guide of €550,000.

Located 3km from Killeagh and 17km from Midleton, Teach na Carraige is bounded at one side by mature woodland and at the rear by an area of rock — “which is probably where it gets its name”.

“The beautifully landscaped gardens are picturesque and tranquil and offer exceptional privacy,” says Ms Hegarty noting that it’s also a 10-minute drive from the beach at Youghal.

At one side, Teach na Carraige has a spacious contemporary kitchen/ diner with cream units and a grey centre island and there’s an archway opening into a tiled sunroom with a vaulted ceiling at the side of the house.

In the centre of the house, there’s a sitting room with a brick fireplace, a stove, and a set of glass-panelled double doors leading through to a larger living area with a cream fireplace, a stove and windows at both the front and side.

At the front facing the garden is an en suite bedroom and at the rear, there’s a utility room and a guest wc. A central staircase leads to a first floor section which has three double bedrooms and a bathroom. A second staircase at the rear leads to a first floor area which was added later and has a spacious en suite bedroom.

In the gardens, which are enclosed by low stone walls, there are well kept lawned areas with shrub beds. The garden building at the rear is useful for family barbecues as well as a larger scale entertaining. At the back of the gardens there’s a longer section bounded by a stream which has a little brick faced outbuilding used as a children’s play area.

There’s parking at the front and a separate 450sq m tarmac area at the side which the owners used for the marquee.

“This could be used for the construction of a home office, for a modular home or for further development,” suggests Ms Hegarty.

She’s already shown Teach na Carraige to a range of viewers including some trade-up buyers from Midleton and around east Cork as well as a few emigrants returning from the UK.

Mr Guerin has now built himself a new home closer to the sea at Garryvoe. One off properties built by him include Elibank House in Castlemartyr — the construction and decoration of which was shared with several thousand viewers on Instagram by its owner.

VERDICT: A beautiful family home and, for a buyer who needs one, a great venue for a wedding reception