Lofty Ballincurra House like a castle floating above silver blanket

THERE are castles in the air, and then there are castles rooted in the past. Ballincurra House is a small bit of both.

What was originally an early 1900s cottage on an elevated hillside at Killeen, near Silvermines and Nenagh in Co Tipperary, is now one Irishman’s completed personal vision, and castellated grand design, all rolled into one.

And, when the fog and low-lying clouds roll in, this almost fantasy-like family home can hover above it all, like a castle floating above a silver blanket, says its owner, Wicklow-born graphic designer and sign-maker (see www.signLED.ie) Michael Gray.

He bought what had been a tiny cottage, more than 1,000 ft above sea level near the top of Ballincurra hill at Kilmeen, back in 1994, and gained planning permission for a far larger affair to be built around it, without objection or planning delay. When he approached planners about adding yet another level, they demurred, and “pretty much said no-one would get planning permission up on this hill again,” he says.

With adjacent landowners of a similar opinion, and a large Coillte forestry plantation behind to the north, this one-off house looks like being outstanding in its own field for quite a time.

With a move to France on the cards, Ballincurra House is on the market with Lisa Kearney of Rooney auctioneers in Limerick city, who quotes an AMV of €775,000 for the fully finished property of 3,500 sq ft. That’s for a masonry and mass concrete-built building, with accommodation on several levels, from one level at the top down to a third, bottom level used as a series of work rooms. In between, and inter alia, it has five bedrooms, a grand hall area, large lounge, kitchen/dining and office, etc.

Local masons and builders did much of the work, adding the last of the castellations in the past year, while Michael (his father was a carpenter) is also a shop-front maker and did the carpentry work, wall panelling, stairs etc himself.

Ballincurra House is on 1.2 acres of grounds, with decking and drives, as well stone butressing, and has a west/south aspect looking down over valley and hills, with Lough Derg shimmering in the distance.

The house has ornamental Gothic and Edwardian features inside and out, with ornate tops a Spanish-seeming feature on perimeter pillars, and it has quality double glazing, some gas-filled, and good insulation standards, with a slightly domed flat roof on the main roof section for water drainage.

It is a true-one off, in a rare setting that can take one’s breath away, says its owner/designer Michael Gray, anticipating that a buyer will come from overseas.