A chance for Irish to see the bigger picture in scenic Ring of Kerry

GONE are the days of Irish people living in boxy bothans up the side of Irish mountains — at least they are gone in places like Kenmare and along the Ring of Kerry.

We Irish are displacing the Continental European and British buyers of previous decades in such beauty spots and big is now beautiful.

Coming in under the Big Buy banner is the 1990s-built Greenane Hall, an unusually-styled detached house, but split into private house/guest apartment on its own 15 acres of land at Cappanacush West, above Templenoe off the Ring of Kerry.

It is two miles from the Ring of Kerry golf course and six miles from the heritage town of Kenmare.

Despite its sizeable 2,600 sq ft floor area, Greenane Hall has been used up to now by its owners as a summer home only, as they leave their regular home by the Swiss-German border for cooler Irish summers, according to estate agent John Daly of Sherry FitzGerald Daly in Kenmare.

He pins a round €1 million price tag to the big house on its generous 15 acres and predicts Irish buying interest to come to the fore.

The house is faced with flat-laid stone (think crazy paving) rather than the more popular deep-set stone, and has been more or less divided in two, with a main living area and an adjoining guest house, with a broad connecting sweep of front patios and views over Kenmare Bay from each of the front rooms.

One of the vendors is a musician and composer, so that may help explain the main living area’s high cathedral ceiling, which gives excellent acoustics, according to Mr Daly. There’ s also a big entrance hall, and the formal dining hall has tall, 15’ high bay windows, with the high-ceilinged rooms laid out in an open plan format.

The house’s main kitchen is small, prompting the suspicion either that a non-cook laid it out, or else it was designed for ease of movement, while overhead are two en suite bedrooms, one with access to a balcony via sliding doors, and the master bedroom has its own dressing room.

The guest apartment has a fitted kitchen, lounge and three ensuite bedrooms; re-integrating some or all rooms into the main residence is an option for any buyers.

The builder was a well-regarded local contractor; the house was built with lots of natural stone floors, under-floor heating, a stone fireplace and extensive paving. It has a long surfaced drive with garden lights and the 15 acres, ringed with stock-proof fencing has grazing areas for animals, and protected woodland.