News that €1.85m Crosbie family home is up for sale is hot off the press 

To get an invite to the Crosbie family home on Montenotte’s Middle Glanmire Road, where having guests drop in was more a pleasure than a chore, was to gain access to one of Cork city’s best-known business dynasties.

It was here that the late Ted Crosbie, merchant prince and belt-and-braces newspaper man, would sit on the stairs in the wee hours of New Year’s Eve, listening to “totally meaningless but wonderful conversations” as the party wound down and the last stragglers quibbled about hitting the road. It was the kind of home where high jinks and genuine warmth were everyday currency.

Ted built Oaklodge in the grounds of the Woodlands Estate, around 1969, having lived first in Woodlands House, which his grandfather, George Crosbie, bought from the estate of Scotsman and serial entrepreneur Sir John Arnott in 1916. By a curious twist of fate, the Irish Times, which Sir John bought in 1873, later became owners of the Irish Examiner. Sir John was prolific in business: founder of Arnott’s department store in Dublin, developer of the docks in Passage, promotor of Irish railways, founder of a brewery later taken over by James J Murphy and Irish Times owner after buying it in 1873 for £35,000.

Ted recounts in an Irish Life & Lore Voices from the Archive interview how Woodlands House came into the Crosbie family, years after Sir John’s death.

“Lady Arnott lived there for 15 years after the old man died. Then she died. Things weren’t terribly good in 1916, I think he [grandad George] got it with the land reasonably cheap...around the time Henry Ford bought Cork Park” (the Monahan Road/Centre Park Road site used for the Ford motor plant).

Ted was the third generation of Crosbies to live at the former Arnott home, where he was reared by his father Thomas and mother Gladys Mary Whitaker of York House, Summerhill, whose family included Whitaker butter merchants and the Hill family of builders and architects. He lived in Woodlands House for nearly 40 years, before building Oaklodge.

His own home outlived Woodlands House, which was demolished in the late 1990s, after portions of the Crosbie family land on the Middle Glanmire Road were sold off. Where once stood Woodlands House now stands Woodlands Demesne, a low density scheme of upmarket homes. 

Another scheme, called Woodlands, developed to the east of Oaklodge, was also built on former Crosbie land.

What’s left now of the original Woodlands House estate is two-storey Oaklodge, on the bones of two acres, expertly planted, beautifully landscaped, with two ancient Oak trees and sweeping views of the city and beyond, down past Tivoli docks from the upstairs rooms.

It’s a prime close-to-city site and it’s going to prove very tempting to developers who can see what’s been achieved either side of it, in seven-home Woodlands Demesne and 30-house Woodlands estate. More recently, in 2016, the now re-located Dominican Fathers sold off just under five acres of their nearby Ennismore estate on the Middle Glanmire Road (guide was €2m) and that was developed into the award-winning Crann Darach 54-unit affordable and social homes scheme, managed by approved housing body Tuath Housing.

High net worth individuals may swoop too at the chance to own a home in such a glorious and generous cityside setting, close to every city convenience and to the north ring road, with easy access to the Dunkettle interchange and the Jack Lynch Tunnel.

Matter of fact, the late Jack Lynch, former Taoiseach, was an occasional guest at Oaklodge on New Year’s Eve, recalls Ted’s son Tom, along with some of the city’s cultural icons like the late Charlie Hennessy, of Cork Film Festival/Cork Opera House fame. Tom says the house was essentially split in two when guests arrived with “the good side for the guests, who came in the front door, while the kids were kept to the other side”.

“There were some amazing parties, whether family occasions or company or civic stuff,” says Tom.

They included family weddings on the lawn, or receptions to mark special city occasions such as the arrival of the Tall Ships to Cork in 1991 (Ted was chair of the Tall Ships steering committee), when an estimated half a million people visited Cork Harbour to see almost 100 fully rigged ships docked along the quays. There were memorable receptions too during Cork’s 2005 reign as European City of Culture, with Ted very involved in operatic productions.

A great, big house, with room for many guests, as well as Ted and his late wife Gretchen and their half a dozen kids, it was very well lived in, but it now needs a good bit of work – albeit the external walls were pumped in recent times resulting in a favourable B3 energy rating. 

Extended considerably over the years, Oaklodge makes good use of the views, although putting the main living accommodation upstairs would give a harbour panorama. It’s possible too that new owners might knock five-bedroom Oaklodge, in favour of a more contemporary home, (or several large detached homes if a developer bites) although it would seem a pity, given its history. As it stands, most of the accommodation is south-facing, overlooking the sweeping, very private, south-facing rear garden with large patio and generous lawns. 

The main fine-size reception room is a graceful space, with marble fireplace, bay window and direct access into the gardens.

There’s a very large conservatory too, but quite a small kitchen, given the house is almost 4,000 sq ft. For hobbyists/man-cave enthusiasts, there’s a fully-fledged workshop.

Oaklodge, which comes with the original gate lodge to Woodlands House - a 150-year-old, 764 sq ft one-bed habitable residence, of architectural heritage significance, with small, south-facing lawn - is for sale with Michael O’Donovan of Savills.

He says it’s in “one of Cork city’s most desirable locations” with harbour views that are “among the best on offer in the Montenotte area”.

Bustling St Lukes Cross is a 15 minute downhill walk, past the Montenotte Hotel, which recently unveiled its Woodland suite experience – a set of new guest suites in the hotel’s lower grounds – which perhaps take their name from the nearby estate, whose history is set for a refresh.

VERDICT: The house is the hook, the land is the angle, expect interest to go viral.