House that’s hot to trot

Tommy Barker is impressed by an Ardagh farmhouse on 13 acres.

HALF doors at the kitchen, and half doors at the stables — truly Ballykenery House is a home for families who love animals.

The renovated farmhouse in Ardagh, Co Limerick is on 13 acres, has stable doors to stop the horse bolting, and a half door at the kitchen’s boundary to stop the hens coming in. The house’s owners, Liam and Helen O’Connor, are uprooting with their five children, dog and 12 horses for a new life in France (see also p1). They’re leaving the down-on-their-cluck hens behind with the house as everyone else flees the coop.

The aim is to start another horse riding business on the continent, and give their five children an education in travel.

The couple have fully overhauled this original 19th century farmhouse in the past few years, with five bedrooms here to cater for the brood, and kept or reinstated lots of character in the main rooms and the house’s own rural setting, right down to the old stone outbuildings.

A character country case in point is the homely kitchen, with painted wood units, cherry worktops, a Belfast sink, and piece de resistance, an open cut stone fire-breast, with a Stanley oil cooker.

There’s even a Liscannor flagstone floor, and that half door on the kitchen gable wall.

It carries a €595,000 price guide, and auctioneer Colm O’Donovan of Sherry FitzGerald O’Donovan says: “It has all of its old world style and features while not compromising in any of the modern-day comforts.”

He reckons it may be bought just as a country base, or as a business. The O’Connors, he notes, have a very successful riding business here already, primarily geared for children and teenagers, and the 13 acres provide enough grazing for a posse of ponies.

For human creature comforts, Ballykenery House has teak double glazing, thick stone walls, oil central heating and there’s a burly solid fuel stove in the main living area for heat-efficiency.

For those fond of the outdoor life there’s space galore, a 40’ by 25’ hay barn, a similar sized fenced-in sand area/ring, and a stone building used for stables and storage.

Location is six miles from Newcastle West, 15 from Adare. And about 600 from France.