‘We didn’t realise our home came with an island’

Asking price: €650,000

Agent: Hegarty Properties (021) 4639411

John O’Brien and his wife Olga didn’t realise the dream retirement home they were buying actually came with its own island — until they started clearing the site.

The O’Briens are proof that if you’ve always wanted a home with a view over water, but can’t manage the hefty price tag that comes with a sea- or river-front property, there’s always the option of one with a huge wildlife pond instead.

This was the case when they bought Belmont House, outside Midleton, in Cork. They had just returned to Ireland in 2016 to seek their dream Irish pad after decades living in the UK.

For her part, Olga was very much fixated on having a water view.

“We looked mainly around Kinsale and Clonakilty, but property was very expensive in those areas.”

“We also couldn’t find half of them,” John added, “because there weren’t any Eircodes back then and we were getting lost down boreens and all over the place.”

The couple met in London in the recession-ridden 1980s when most Irish young people took the boat in order to secure a future.

Having just been made redundant, a young Olga had left Cork City in 1986 with the intention of heading for a new life in Bermuda.

Flying first to London, she arranged to stay with an Irish family for her stopover. Noting her interest in squash, the man of the house arranged a match with a friend of his, John O’Brien, a teacher in a Westminster Catholic school.

Love blossomed and Olga never made it to Bermuda. The couple settled in Twickenham for 30 years and had four children.

Then, in 2016, with an empty nest on their hands, they sold up with plans to head back to Cork in search of their dream retirement pad.

Eventually, their search took them to Belmont House, near Midleton. The four-bedroom home had everything they wanted, including the extra large pond. “At least it gave me the view of the water I was looking for,” Olga said.

Along with extending the house to incorporate a new state-of-the-art kitchen, the new owners expended most of their efforts and money outdoors, during which they discovered an old well and an island out in the pond, which had been hidden by vegetation.

“The pond had always been there, but when we bought the place, it was completely overgrown. You couldn’t see the water,” Olga said.

“The neighbours told us the well had supplied water to the people of Ballymacahill in former times.”

But their new expanse of water would need some restoration, so Olga and John hired a team of workers who stayed with them for three weeks, doing 12-hour days while they dug through the weeds, reeds and vegetation.

The couple subsequently connected their island to the garden by building a footbridge.

“However, being city folk, we didn’t realise how quickly mother nature takes over and things started to grow again almost as quickly as we had removed it,” said Olga. “So we contacted a botanist who advised us on how to manage it and allow it come back to life.”

In the eight years since they dug it out and replanted it, the pond has become a haven of biodiversity, with moorhens, water hens, ducks and a range of insect and aquatic life.

Belmont was originally constructed in 2000. The 2,228 sq ft dwelling has two dormer sections of differing heights — a sunroom to one side and an extension at the rear that includes a modern kitchen with a ‘glass’ wall made up of folding PVC doors and a wraparound composite deck set on blocks, which Olga and John built to replace older wooden decking.

Part of the exterior of the house, along with the garage and the entrance, are finished in brick.

The hallway includes a guest WC. The main family room has a marble fireplace and picture windows at either end. French doors lead to the sunroom overlooking the gardens and, from here, double doors open to the decking area.

The open plan kitchen/dining area is finished in cream gloss with granite worktops and splashback, a double oven cooker with an electric hob, an integrated American style fridge freezer and a marble-topped island with storage underneath.

There’s a set of folding, melodeon-style, glazed PVC retractable doors.

Off the kitchen is the tiled laundry /utility room with floor level units, a Belfast sink with a tiled splashback and plumbing for a washing machine and dryer.

The four bedrooms are en suite and the master bedroom comes with slide robes and a Juliet balcony to the side, overlooking the pond. There is also an attic space.

The double garage is a two-floor building extending to 1,100 sq ft, which is fully insulated and accessed through an electric roller shutter door.

The first floor is currently fitted out as a gym complete with shower room.

The house is on a 2.5ac site that includes the gardens, the pond and a south-facing rear patio. Water is supplied from a private well and other services include a bio-cycle waste system and oil-fired central heating.

Now that their London-based children have grandchildren, Olga and John want to be part of their lives, so the couple are selling Belmont House, as well as Olga’s original family home at Friar St, Co Cork, before moving back to London, lock, stock and barrel,

“Three of our four children are in the London area. Our grandchildren are there and we want to be near them,” Olga said.

Belmont House, with 2.5 acres at Ballymacahill near Midleton in East Cork, is for sale for €650,000 through Hegarty Properties.