Idyllic escape on an acre in east Cork for €875k

Memberton is a particularly fine country home with roots in the 1700s but modern credentials from a lavish extension. To the front it has the looks, many original features and formal living spaces of its 18th-century origins; to the rear it has soaring, bright living areas that couldn’t be more 21st century.

With the best of worlds old and new going for it, Memberton also has location in its acre site of lawned and cultivated gardens and high old trees. All of this is set into rolling countryside just outside Whitegate, the village on the eastern shore of Cork Harbour.

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Built as a dower house, probably in the late 1790s, for the much larger and long-gone Mosestown House, Memberton was owned by the Roche family, who held on to it until the early 20th century. It then changed owners six times in the 1900s, although it never seems to have been less than greatly appreciated. Always cared for and maintained, Memberton was seriously renovated and updated by two sets of owners in the early and late 1990s and in 2004.

The vendors, who paid €650,000 for Memberton in 2016, have done some work on the property, adding to the size and inner courtyard of the newer, rear section and cultivating the period origins of the front part of the house. They are moving with heavy hearts. Their best memories will be of privacy and peace, of greenfield views, and of the light.

The joint agents, Sherry FitzGerald Country Homes and Sherry FitzGerald O'Donovan in Midleton, are seeking €875,000 this time around. Memberton has a floor area of 415sq m (4,467sq ft). There are three en-suite bedrooms, a drawingroom, diningroom and conservatory in the original part of the house, a south-facing double-height kitchen/diningroom, family room, mezzanine, three bedrooms (two en suite) and a family bathroom in the newer part. A large detached garage/workshop to the side offers living/studio possibilities.

Lots of Memberton’s old stone has been held on to, both outside and on occasional interior walls and flagstone floors. The floor-to-ceiling glass doors and windows that are a feature of the rear of the house highlight the architectural verve of this section as well as the views. A mezzanine walkway between old and new makes for a sunlit reading and relaxation retreat.

Memberton is 13km from Midleton; the village of Whitegate is a short trot away.