Property of note in Ring of Kerry
THE Dubliners’ fiddle player John Sheehan, he of the flowing white mane and beard, changed German-born Martin Kraut’s life 40 years ago. So, it was with a touch of serendipity that when Martin actually met his hero five years ago, he was able to acknowledge this impact in an appropriate way — with a fiddle, steeped in Guinness.
There are, one suspects, several meandering threads during this German Kerry resident’s life, but violins are a bit of a background theme.
A retired psychotherapist, Martin Kraut learned to play classical violin in his childhood, switched to saxophone in his teens (to impress the girls, he admits) and was back playing classical violin when, in 1972, his fiddle arm took a dramatic swerve.
He was visiting Danish friends in Copenhagen who asked him to come to Ireland on a holiday with them, and on so doing, he went to a Dubliners’ concert and “that was it, my life changed, I stopped playing classical as it’s a bit boring by yourself, I fell for traditional music, the melodies — and went back to Ireland every year after that on holidays.”
Brazil also came to play a role in Martin’s life: on a visit there, he heard of a man living in the wilderness who, self-taught, made violins, but only played the trombone in church, and so Martin got him to show him some basics and then bought two books, including The Art of Making Violins, and another passion bit.
“The first one was the most expensive bit of firewood ever, but now I’ve made quite few good ones,” he modestly admits.
En route to Brazil via Lisbon a few years ago, Martin spotted John Sheehan on a flight, with instrument in hand, and braved approaching the Dubliner to tell him how he’d changed his life and “I promised to make him a violin.”
True to his word, six months later Martin had the instrument made, and John Sheehan and his wife stayed the night playing music in this Blackwater Bridge Kerry home while en route to the Listowel Writer’s Festival.
The violin, appropriately wood-stained with Guinness extract or essence sourced via a contact in the brewery (some makers use tea-bags to stain the raw wood), is pictured on these pages, as it had to make a detour back to its maker for repair after a fall wrenched its neck.
Nick of time lucky timing, because Martin and his Brazilian wife Eliana are selling up at this special Ring of Kerry beauty spot, here since 1997, and they will divide their time between Bahia, Brazil near Eliana’s parents, and will source a smaller Irish base .
Estate agent Suzanne Teahan of Sherry Fitzgerald Daly in Kenmare is charged with the sale of the 2,500 sq ft four-bed with garage, stone workshed and over four idyllic wooded acres, with stream and pond. She pins what seems like an eminently achievable e450,000 to the lot, stock and woods.
The original house portion dates back 150 years, but has been extended and upgraded, and now has deft but appealing Tudor-cottage-like touches, some leaded windows, ornate fascias, and more visual appeal than you could shake a fiddle stick at — a real beauty in a competing wider area beauty spot.
It’s set just across the road from beguiling Blackwater Pier (pictured,) on the N70 between Kenmare and Sneem, and even without its solar panels for water heating, and photovoltaic panels for energy generation, it’s an eye-catcher for passers-by on the Ring, with golf courses nearby, as well as top hotels. Might a buyer make a guest appearance from Sneem or Kenmare’s palatial hotels?
Gardens and house here are easy, snuggling bed-fellows, with Virginia creepers up the pebble-dashed walls, the front is terraced with pots for plants and summer colour, and both flora and fauna thrive in the 4.5 acres, with old oak trees, plus flowering rhododendron and camellias. There’s a pond, with a stream passing through, a gazebo on a little island reached by stepping stones, and peace and tranquillity everywhere.
It’s all pleasantly old world, yet steeped in comfort, has four first floor bedrooms with three en suites plus shower room, and at ground level a conservatory plus a sun-room in cedar, linking back to open plan living room with large brick fireplace, there’s a dining room, kitchen, library/study, utility — and a music room. If the walls could talk, they’d ask for bit of ciúnas.
VERDICT: Strikes all the right notes.
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