From ruin to splendour

ALL done up to best conservation practice is Killarney Farmhouse - a confusing name for a Co Kilkenny located home.

The early 1800s two-storey house near Thomastown and the so-called Killarney gate to the Mount Juliet estate was bought in a largely derelict state five years ago by leathercraft workers Kevin Toner and Tania Slaughter.

They basically put their day jobs (Toner’s Bag Company) on hold for a year or more while they got stuck into rebuilding the house, on an acre of grounds, and finished off the mix with a restored old courtyard barn, a workshop and stables.

The restoration bug obviously bit deeply as the couple have now bought a larger granite-built farmhouse on seven acres, and are rolling up their sleeves to rip out the 1970s dry-lining to let that next house’s walls breathe naturally once more.

Now Killarney Farmhouse is on the market with Kilkenny estate agents FitzGeralds, who give it a €375,000 price guide.

What was mostly derelict five years ago, with portions unlived in for 50 years and even 100 years, and with the obligatory tree growing through the collapsed roof, is now a homely and healthy farmhouse of immense character, and authenticity.

Local traditional mason Andy Barcoe rebuilt the stone walls, which are finished now inside and out in lime mortar and with a cheery Mediterranean-hued ochre-coloured limewash. Another local craftsman, Padge Dack, aged in his 80s, made the tiny timber sash windows and half doors, and slate for the roof came from a pig farm in Co Waterford.

Kevin Toner says: “When we bought the place an architect looked at it and said it was so bad he didn’t know where to start on it. I told him a pick and shovel is where we’d start, and we took on the project ourselves.”

The couple did a short course in traditional building conservation with Cornerstone, in Larchill House in Kilcock, and then threw themselves into the work with gusto.

Because the lime mortars allow the walls of the house to breathe, it is dry and healthy, says Kevin, and an oil fired Aga works 364 days of the year to keep it cosy (it gets a day off each year for a service.)

Kevin bought 14 cast iron radiators “on the side of Mount Leinster” which had been cast in Belfast by Musgrave and Company, a provenance he discerned from one brass plate on a radiator. He had the buckle maker they used in the UK for their bags and belts to make up replica solid brass plates for the other rads.

The he now-finished house and barn have a particularly welcoming feel, enhanced by warm colours and wood and natural finishes, with oak and beech floors and pot belly wood burning stoves another feature.

The main house has a family room running 30’ by 15’, and taking in the kitchen, a sitting room and three overhead bedrooms, one with a shower room ensuite, plus main bathroom. The outside converted barn has a kitchen, sitting room or ground floor bedroom, bathroom, and first floor dining room with galley kitchen, shower room and a bedroom. Outside, the store is 1,200 sq ft, block cavity wall-built and barn, has heating, power and water, and there’s a small stable block with three stables. Location is eight miles from Kilkenny.