18th-century Lotabeg House on market for €7m

The last time they came to Lotabeg House, it was by the busload — and in their thousands.

In marked contrast, with the house and grounds now for sale, it is viewing by private appointment, select parties only, who’ll have millions of euros at the ready, and development in mind.

Two years after a spectacular contents auction, which saw 7,000 people visit the long-mothballed period Lotabeg House on the edge of Cork City, poring over the finery amassed from previous centuries’ travel, from China, India and lost empires, it’s time for this hidden home to find a buyer.

For sale with ERA Downey McCarthy, Cork, and Goffs, Kildare, Lotabeg House has an all-in guide of €7m. The house, hidden amidst 17 acres of woodland, is guided at €1m, 7.4 acres of zoned land is €3.5m, while 11 acres behind, with derelict farmhouse, is a further €2.5m.

The late 1700s-built six-bed, 15,000sq ft home on 36 valuable acres at Tivoli had effectively lain dormant since 1936, when its owner Vincent Hart died.

In May 2016, the great house’s fan-lit porticoed doors swung open again, to Munster’s masses, for three days of public viewings, followed by a 10-hour live auction of Hart family prized possessions.

In one of the largest-ever pre-auction events in the country, droves were driven to the Tivoli home by shuttle bus from the nearby Clayton Silver Springs Hotel, ambling in awe through its dramatic domed circular hall, ringed by a dramatic cantilevered staircase, testing the servants’ bells.