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.