Eyecatching, which ever way you look at it

THE man behind Ballynore House in Thomastown, Kilkenny didn't cut corners - in fact he doubled up on them.

Octagonal in shape, Ballynore is modelled on a Regency villa design, but more specifically on a US house Monticello designed by Thomas Jefferson (who went, in a manner of speaking, from octagonal houses to Oval Offices) and a similar house the Russian Lodge in Suffolk.

It was completed just two years ago to classical specification and design palette, by a team of Irish craftworkers.

It's in the Nore valley, between Inistioge and Thomastown, and has an unstinted specification, delivered by builders Paddy and Stephen Ryan. This includes careful siting in a wooded glade, a veranda around the entire upper level ideal for enjoying the views and superbly crafted Gothic style windows.

The house, internally decorated to match the period it is modelled on, looks single storey from the front, and from the side and lower down the site its two-storey status emerges.

On the market with David Ashmore of HOK Country with a price guide of €775,000, Ballynore was conceived, designed and built by a British individual Jeremy Nieboer who is now selling up and going back to Britain after 12 years living in Ireland, having built three houses here and several in the UK over a long period.

The house is in one of the most beautiful, sensitive and quietly affluent parts of the country, by the area know as The Inch on the Nore. It comes with fishing rights (single bank) and a good reputation for brown trout and salmon with a half dozen named pools, there's golf just four miles away at Mount Juliet and courses at Faithlegg in Waterford, racing and local hunts, plus shooting, as well as a thriving arts scene in Kilkenny city.

Ballynore House, with its perky central chimney and balconies, looks almost like a folly or garden house, but that fleeing impression is deceptive: it has a considerable 2,500 sq ft of space, give or take a few feet given the unusual room angles necessitated by the octagonal design.

Rooms, both living and sleeping, are spread or shared over the two levels.

The upper level has a central hallway with rooms splayed off it, including four bedrooms, formal drawing room with veranda and garden access, and two bathrooms.

The lower level has a dining room, kitchen, and en suite fifth bedroom.

Both the reception rooms have fireplaces, period style, and detailing in the decor includes cornice work and ceiling roses.

Ballynore House has oil heating, and given its modern construction methods won't have the usual maintenance concerns of the real period article of this style.