Slevoir, an Italianate lakeside Tipperary mansion on 110 acres is for sale at €2 million – a drop of 50 per cent since it was last sold in 2006.
NUNS will climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow ’til they find . . . their dream home. Convents are often found in the most desirable locations and few spots could rival Slevoir, a mansion on a verdant, sloping lakeshore in Co Tipperary.
Admittedly, Terryglass isn’t quite Austrian Alpine meadowland but one can still imagine a Sister Bridget yodelling her heart out like Maria at the sight of a glittering Lough Derg.
And, sure enough, this estate once housed the Salesian Sisters, an Italian order who came to Ireland in 1920, at the invitation of the Bishop of Limerick.
The house was built in 1870 by Lieutenant Colonel J F Hickie, of the Royal Munster Fusiliers regiment (served in India and had a good Raj, apparently), to a design by John McCurdy – the architect of Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel.
He chose the Italianate style, modelled on Renaissance architecture, which had become popular after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (who both had such good taste) built their Isle of Wight retreat, Osborne House, in that manner.
The campanile tower and balustraded roof terrace of Slevoir offer wonderful, uninterrupted views over land and lake. The Hickie family lived there in some style.
At the height of the Edwardian era, a household of just three “gentry” was served by a live-in staff of six: cook, kitchen-maid, housemaid, parlourmaid, footman and, a yacht-hand.
Well, the estate does have its own private harbour on Lough Derg. The grounds employed a small army of gardeners and grooms, coachmen and farm labourers.
But the golden era was in terminal decline and, by the 1960s, Slevoir had been sold to the nuns who used it as a novitiate until 1982. A decline in vocations led them to sell. Out went God; in came Mammon. The house was bought by a German company, for use as a private residence, – at a time when Lebensraum in Ireland was fashionable with das Volk. But, happily, they left few traces – other than adding a fish smokehouse in a disused barn.
In 1999, the house sold again – for £3.1 million – to an American businessman but his Irish dream also turned sour and he never lived there.
Then in 2006 it was bought by two Irish investors for just over €4 million. They had planned to create a luxury country house hotel but that plan also failed to materialise.
God works in mysterious ways. Now they’ve put it back on the market – at half the price – and the house, on 110 acres, is for sale, by private treaty for €2 million through Savills. The location is just outside the village of Terryglass (exit at Nenagh from the M7 Dublin-Limerick motorway).
The 11-bedroom mansion appears to be in very good structural condition – a tribute to the Victorian genius for construction – and has about 1,381sq m (14,865sq ft) of accommodation.
The entrance hallway, in the base of the tower, leads in to a stunning, large baronial hall which features a carved timber staircase that is top-lit from a glazed atrium and leads to a gallery on the first floor. This area is the most striking interior feature of the house and offers the perfect setting for family dramas and great parties.
And, if you’ve got a brood of von Trapp-style little prodigies, they’ll love staging musical entertainments here.
The ground floor has large reception rooms with lake views, a huge kitchen that hasn’t been updated since Mrs Bridges and a separate kitchen and sittingroom for the Mr Hudson in your life.
The first floor has 11 bedrooms: seven main bedrooms (of which five are en suite) and twin passageways leading to four further bedrooms, two bathrooms and a shower room. The basement and upper tower rooms provide further potential accommodation. The room at the top floor of the tower is only just accessible – by the steepest wooden staircase in Ireland – but a little lift could be installed.
The house retains many original features including tiled floors, window shutters, ornate ceiling plasterwork and bell-pushes for summoning servants.
It will require some repairs and modernisation – but nothing daunting. Most regrettably, the front door and windows were replaced by white PVC – as incongruous as plonking a Sky TV dish onto the side of a Lake Como villa. The agent believes the naughty nuns may have been responsible, but happily, their sin of commission – though deserving of a few weeks in Purgatory – could easily be reversed.
Outside there are pleasure grounds in need of a "Capability" Brown makeover and original, untouched Victorian stableyards and coach-houses in a courtyard reached via a tunnel from the house. A walled garden is currently used to a corral a herd of prime Tipperary beef calves which look like they'd be more at home on The High Chaparral. The land consists of 90 arable acres and 20 acres of woodland. There is extensive lake frontage.
Forget Yeats' humble cabin of clay and wattles made. Slevoir offers grand and gracious lakeside living for a 21st century grandee. But you'll need a dash of Victorian va-va-voom – not to mention a few quid.
History of a country estate
1870:Slevoir built by Lieutenant Colonel J F Hickie, of the Royal Munster Fusiliers
1950:bought by the Italian Salesian order of nuns
1982:German company buys it as a private residence
1999:American businessman pays £3.1m for Slevoir
2006:Two Irish investors pay just over €4m for the house and estate
