PHOTOGRAPHS and memories are often all that are left from a house sale but for the owner of Elmville, the model-making skills of her 92-year-old father will help ease the emotional wrench.

With a steady hand and masterful concentration, he created an exact replica of her home on Cobh’s Lower Road, so that she has a 3D model as a keepsake.

She’s currently fitting this doll’s house out, displaying the same great eye for detail evident in Elmville itself, where each room is faithful to the deep, rich hues and elegance of its Victorian heritage.

While Elmville is set to exit the family, its mini-version will be handed over in due course to the owner’s eight-year-old granddaughter, Meredith Hume, “as a legacy from her great grandfather, John Fogarty”, who has made 27 models, including the Rock of Cashel and the Swiss Cottage in Cahir, since he took up the hobby in 2018.

Just as her dad has a passion for model-making, the vendor of Elmville is passionate about her home of 25 years, during which time she saw herself in the dual role of owner and guardian.

“These are fabulous homes but we are only passing through this life and looking after them,” she says. “You get used to it and you grow into that responsibility.” Elmville became home following what you could call a banking merger — she was working at 57 South Mall and her husband at nearby No 66 when their paths first crossed.

“I was working for Allied Irish Investments, a subsidiary of AIB, and he was in AIB headquarters at No 66 and we bumped into each other in the canteen. The rest is history, as they say,” she laughs.

As they were on the lookout for a period home, Cobh seemed like an obvious location to scout.

“Cobh has an abundance of amazing architecture — that’s one thing we’ve to be grateful to the British for,” she says, tongue-in-cheek. (Cobh was a British Naval Port for more than a century).

She first spotted Elmville in the Irish Examiner’s Property in 1995 and they bought it in 1998 (the previous owners had a short-lived stay).

“We were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time,” she says, adding: “I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.” Having bought in March ’98, they moved in by Christmas and Gerry Galvin builders arrived to tackle the renovations in January 1999.

The builders were in for nine months during which time the family lived in the lower ground floor (since divided into two self-contained units).

“I loved being here. I was like a pig in the proverbial, even with all the work going on,” she says.

“I have loved the whole project, seeing it right through over the past 25 years to where it is today. And I have been very conscious of keeping all of its beautiful, original features and of keeping it faithful to the period in which it was built. It has been a labour of love.” Elmville was built c1860, according to Buildings of Ireland, a database of our architectural heritage. It’s described as “one of a pair of substantial houses occupying the Rushbrooke area of Cobh”.

The other half of the pair is nearby Oakhurst, which recently went sale agreed.

At the Whitepoint end of the Lower Road, the properties are believed to have been home to two brothers, a Dr Townshend and a Captain Townshend, both naval men. Elmville’s owner says the men’s father, an Admiral Townshend, from Castletownshend, built the houses for his sons. The pair are the only two standalone homes on the Lower Road, where a dozen more are semi-ds, all on fine sites between the High and Lower roads.

Elmville and Oakhurst share more than a common heritage. Both have also operated as B&Bs. While the owner was rearing her family in Elmville, guests stayed in the self-contained lower ground floor units but she brought the business upstairs once her children had flown the nest. Overseas visitors have been the mainstay, particularly Americans and Germans. The level of repeat business was a vote of confidence in what her guests thought of their host and the property with its magnificent gardens, not to mention the to-die-for views.

They were particularly appreciative of the owner’s commitment to respecting Elmville’s vintage.

“I think people really appreciated the opportunity to share in something like this. Everything was chosen with attention to detail. All of the furniture was bought for this house and we even bought matching bedroom suites, where wardrobes match headboards and bedside lockers and dressing tables,” the owner says.

As timbers such as mahogany, walnut, and rosewood were all the rage in the Victorian age, they feature throughout the house, including the mahogany kitchen on the first floor, using wood imported from South Africa and made into a kitchen in Malta (the couple drew on international contacts in the banking world), before being installed in Cobh.

Across the hallway from the kitchen is the dining room, a fabulous dual-aspect space with a big bay window to the front, a marble-surround original fireplace, cornicing, and ceiling rose.

It’s where the guests ate breakfast, while drinking in those sweeping harbour views.

Next door, through sliding pocket doors, is the drawing room, also overlooking the harbour and front lawns of Elmville.

Wrapping you in their warm Victorian embrace, these two principal, interconnecting reception rooms have an air of old-world grandeur that can only be found in authentic period homes.

The owner recalls staging murder-mystery evenings with family and friends in these great rooms, which might be a quirky business proposition for new owners if they were keen on finding a B&B niche. The owner remembers borrowing a nun’s habit from the nearby convent for her role in the evening of intrigue.

High ceilings are another original feature of Elmville, as are doors and windows.

An arched fanlight and glazed side panels frame the striking red front door, which is accessed from the side of the house via a flight of limestone steps.

Inside the entrance porch, double doors open into the hallway. With original frosted glass and vivid side panes of red and cobalt blue,they bookend one end of the hall, while a huge window at the opposite end, moved from its original position when the house was extended in 2001, bookends the opposite side.

The extension added a back hall, creating more storage and access from the first floor to the back garden.

Upstairs, a huge ensuite was added to the main bedroom. It’s a fabulous room where a giant mirror hangs over the Victorian slipper bath so that anyone going for a soak need only look into the mirror for a terrific view of the harbour. 

There’s also a separate shower and ‘His’ and ‘Hers’ dressing rooms off the ensuite.

Through from the ensuite is the splendid main bedroom, where windows look out towards the harbour and the south-facing front lawn.

There are four upstairs bedrooms, all doubles, each with high ceiling, all wonderfully bright and furnished in keeping with the Victorian era.

The staircase that leads to these rooms is equally impressive and on the landing is the large main bathroom with shower, jacuzzi bath, and feature mirrored walls.

And there’s more. Off the back hallway there’s a very large room, which the current owner calls “the back office” but it could also be a playroom/another bedroom/reception room or even a good spot for a relocated kitchen, where a harbour view could offset the tedium of domestic duties.

Then there’s the lower ground floor, with its two self-contained units, adding three more bedrooms, all ensuite, and each with a kitchen and sitting room.

For a family considering buying Elmville, these units are ready-made accommodation for an au pair or perhaps an older relation downsizing. It’s also entirely possible that new owners might decide to reincorporate the the lower ground floor into the main hous.

Selling agents Gillian McDonnell and Ann O’Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald (also the agents for Oakhurst), feel it might be ideal for a professional service such as an accountancy or legal practice, or a health-related space such as a physiotherapy clinic.

Ms McDonnell believes that Elmville will ultimately be a family home.

“It’s an exquisite property and one I think that would make an outstanding family home,with its gorgeous grounds and lovely layout, and all the space,” she says.

The grounds are exceptional and are an integral part of Elmville’s appeal.

 Spread over 0.6 acres, they slope down from the rear High Road to the lower-level, south-facing, close-to-waterside front lawn, where one of two raised patios looks directly out to the harbour and Haulbowline’s naval base. A second raised patio to the east side of the garden gets the evening sun.

The owner has looked after much of the upkeep herself, planting a herb garden and lots of flowering shrubs that are mature now and relatively low maintenance.

The grounds are nicely private too, with lots of mature trees (including a plum tree) and with just a small gate to the rear of the property to allow pedestrian access from the High Road, while the main entry point is between elegant redbrick pillars on the Lower Road, through cast iron gates, into a gravelled turning circle, with plenty of parking room too.

It’s all too big for the current owner now and she has already exited the B&B business as it was scuppered temporarily by the pandemic. She was in Australia visiting her daughter at the time and struggled to get home when lockdown was imposed. She only got out when the Irish government chartered an aircraft to repatriate people.

“I had time on my hands when I got home and I decided then to convert Dad’s model of Elmville (scale 1:24) into a doll’s house. I have the joy of furnishing it and it’s a work in progress.

“When I am finished, I will hand it over to my granddaughter Meredith Hume (now aged eight) as a legacy from her great grandfather, my father, John Fogarty.” John’s achievements featured earlier this year in RTÉ’s Nationwide programme, when he handed over his model of the Cashel Palace Hotel in time for its opening on March 1.

So, like father like daughter when it comes to making the model home. Elmville is part of the owner’s proud legacy as she prepares to hand it over in very good order to the next owners, who will not only acquire a remarkable property with outstanding harbour views, but also one that is ideally located, just a short walk from Cobh town centre and the train station, and less than half an hour from Cork City.

VERDICT: Anyone looking for an exceptional trade-up cannot fail to be impressed by Elmville, with its model looks, great proportions, stunning views, and sweeping gardens. Moreover, its self-contained units present income opportunities: B&B/unit rental/home-based business.

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