Co Cork: €4mA renovated house on six acres, overlooking the sea, dates back over 400 years, writes Rose Doyle
Walton House, Oysterhaven, Kinsale, Co Cork, comes impressively close to dream home status: its location, overlooking Oysterhaven Bay, is to die for and so is its stately presence, its faithfully restored and warmly decorated interior and gardens alive with both edible and aesthetic plant life.
All this and a history too, one that's recorded from 1576. This details how Walton House stood stalwart as its inhabitants dabbled in treason, smuggling and, more happily, in a laudable relief effort during the Famine. It was remodelled in a Georgian style in 1776, with 100 local craftsmen cutting the ashlar stone block on the building.
The present owners rebuilt and rescued Walton House when they bought it 11 years ago, using local craftspeople of many disciplines to replace and replicate period doors, plasterwork and more. This is a large house, measuring around 660sq m (7,104sq ft), divided into three floors in which there are six reception rooms, five bedrooms (most of them en suite) two office/studios, a hobby room and three kitchens.
The stable/courtyard has been restored too with the stables becoming four self-contained cottages and a conference centre with bar, spa pool and more added. There are three habitable chalets in the gardens, and a sauna room. The buildings are rented out for short-term lets, weddings and conferences, and the property is being sold as a going concern.
Everything sits on about 2.42 hectares (6 acres) and is being sold as one lot with an asking price of €4 million, through Knight Frank Ganly Walters.
The entrance hall has an antique French limestone floor - original to the house's period but with the luxury of underfloor heating. It's typical of the "lots of trouble" the owners took over the restoration.
"We completely removed roofs, windows and floors and started again from a stone shell, says Paul Rafferty. "We did lots of research and brought a whole churchyard of stones from Cheshire in England."
Traditionally limewashed walls and strong-toned Georgian colours recreate drawing and other rooms in all their welcoming glory.
The drawing and diningrooms have full-length, shuttered sash windows, hardwood floors and ceiling plasterwork of elaborate detail.
The conservatory has wide garden views and air conditioning. The family kitchen, one of the oldest rooms in the house, dates from 1640 and is next to a commercial kitchen.
A library on the first floor has views of both the bay and gardens and the second/attic floor is a self-contained unit with two bedrooms, full kitchen, livingroom, shower room and a hobby room with, again, views over the bay.
