Standing the test of time

MAGINE seeing out four centuries, and still having the heart and structure to stand for a few hundred years more.

Rathcoursey House, a hospitable place recently stayed in by European royalty and ambassadors, is at heart a magnificent family home.

It overlooks East Ferry and Great Island in Cork harbour, half an hour from the city and airport, and is on 35 acres of land with stone outbuildings, some of them part renovated.

Built on the defensive inlet site of a de Coursey castle, Rathcoursey has roots going back the 1600s, but mostly dates from the later 1700s, when it was set up as a solid Georgian home by the sea captain James Tynte Smyth, whose role is commemorated on a wall plaque outside Rathcoursey.

His handiwork was extended yet again in the mid-1800sRathcouresy, now on the market with Michael H Daniels & Co with a €1.4 million price guide, remained in the Smyth family up until the 1950s, and was sold again in the late 1990s.

That is when the quietly determined Beth Hallinan entered the picture and brought the house forward for yet another long period ofhealth.

"It is as good as it ever was, and possibly even in better condition," she says.

With the help of accomplished builder Alan Moroney, she oversaw the total conservation of the house, which has eight bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and three fine reception rooms, all done with careful attention to period detailing.

Decadently, the bedrooms have working fireplaces, the sash windows have working shutters, new ceiling mouldings have been done in situ, and floors are a mix of ancient polished wood and quarry stone and tiling.

There's a warming four-oven Aga in the kitchen, and the house has a sunny westerly aspect, with new front entrance put in on the southerly aspect for extra interior brightness and access to the lawns.

Vendor Beth Hallinan, born in Ireland (three miles away, at Ballinacurra near Midleton) but reared in the West Indies, has a grown family of four, with eight grandchildren.

She has a lifetime of hospitality behind her in several countries, and has hosted guests at Rathoursey such as US ambassadors and members of a European royal family, but is too graciously discreet tomention names.

She is selling to have more family time and says the house is simply too big for her now.

When she bought, it needed serious attention, and Beth provided it in the form of teams of workmen who tackled the challenges for a seven month period.

"I was scared witless. I used to lie in bed at night thinking 'what have I done?' " she recalls of the period of upheaval.

It is privately set up a meandering avenue, in its own acres of ground and woodland, with herb gardens and hidden oases, with a range of traditional buildings, suitable for a variety of uses.

One lofted building has recently been broached, with a pitch pine floor put in the 125' long space "ideal for a ball," says Beth.