Beat a path to door of an opulent Kerry home

The 5,000 sq ft Beau Fort, in Blennerville, near Tralee, has been built to the highest specifications, says Tommy Barker

There’s an energy and exuberance to this Kerry home, Beau Fort, a one-off in every way, delivered with an assured confidence.

The modern home has internal glamour and surprising external twists and turns, especially in its serpentine-like water feature, dropping down through tiers in the back garden.

Built a few years ago, this large home is above Blennerville, a hideaway a short commute from Tralee, and it has mountain and sea/peninsula views from its transformed, two-thirds-of-an-acre site.

Beau Fort’s design and construction was a labour of love for the owners, who hadn’t built before, yet who weren’t fazed by a 5,000 sq ft home, done to the highest standards, packed with high-end features and innovation. And, it’s surprisingly cheap to run, thanks to high insulation standards, low-energy touches (the BER’s a very impressive B1) and a heating system that cost the bones of €100,000, but which will repay the capital cost with low heat bills. Just as well it’s built to last, then.

Set at Curragraigue, above Blennerville, it’s new to market with Tralee estate agent, Ger Carmody, who prices it at €720,000, and who says while it’s unique, “at its heart it’s just an incredible, quality family home, done to five-star standards.” Given the special touches, he expects interest from beyond and overseas, as well as from the local area’s very uppermost catchment.

It’s got swagger, sure, and some bold decor touches, from imperial purples to lots of monochrome black-and-white motifs; one thing’s for sure, it ain’t boring.

Yet, change a few items of furniture or decor for personal taste, and it’s a fantastic blank canvas for any new owners picking up the pace.

Given that the family who built it are abroad, there may be the chance to negotiate on key furniture, and other items, when the bargaining starts: the one ‘given’ is that a house like this couldn’t be built, finished, fitted and furnished for anything like the €720,000 sum now being sought by Mr Carmody.

For all the zaniness of some of the interiors, the scene stealer is outside, and it’s that snaking-stone water feature, a slender, serpentine cataract cascading (safely, though) down towards the house’s rear terraces from the higher-up garden lawns and tiers. It’s like a canoe slalom course, a gorge complete with lighting on its internal boulders, while on either side are sandstone-paved steps, and lawn boundaries, edged in railway sleepers and picked out in LED lighting. It’s a scene-setter, to be sure, further set-off by some box topiary and tree ferns.

It came about when the garden design landscaper, Tommy Laide, was doing the grounds, a mix and blend of the formal/hard landscaping and the more informal, and naturalistic, with rockery beds also in the front lawn. “I’d always admired Tommy’s work and he came up trumps for me,” says the house owner, who was immersed (in more ways than one) in the water feature and overall larger project, inside, outside, down to the last detail and sourcing.)

The water feature’s form was conceived as she watched the tiered garden progressing, and she thought of a mountain stream and how it would burst into life after rains. “I suggested it to Tommy and — from a little notepad and pencil — the serpentine shape emerged. We even got the electrician, Mike, and his son, Gavin, to light it from underneath, which looks amazing at night,” she says, while a device near the bottom creates a misty fog rising off the water — for that extra Kerry touch.

Keeping the team-work local, Ballyseedy Garden Centre supplied all of the shrubs and trees, and the owner gives huge credit to Ballyseedy’s founder, Bernie Falvey, and her son, Nathan McDonnell, “who were superb, as always.” As in any significant landscape investment, it’s a spend that will repay dividends in multiples, over time and the seasons.

The house is pretty large, weighing in at about 5,000 sq ft, with a double roof and effective double depth, with end set-backs allowing light into the core area, aided and abetted by the many, many roof Veluxes in the planner-friendly dormer format. (The planners were keen to keep ridge heights low, which meant tweaking for the sweeping, central staircase.)

Apart from the set-backs, also helping to reduce the visual bulk of the finished house are the several stone-facade inserts or sections, rising into the natural slate roof.

Work started around 2007 after the owners’ initial drawings were worked into shape by a family friend, JJ O’Connor, who’s a civil and architectural design profiler in Castleisland, and, after some minor alterations, Kerry County Council gave approval to build.

The recommended builder was Michael Broderick, from Ballymacelligott, as the owners felt he had a good eye for detail “and was eager and conscientious at the very young age of 28.”

“Mike was the perfect choice and every task was made to seem effortless. He even enlisted his brother, Timmy, to hand cut the intricate roof with him,” says the woman of the house, in appreciation of the workmanship and trust rewarded.

Family illness and tragedy, however, struck the couple during the build process, and what was started as a joint project ended up as a form of bereavement therapy. Now, with a business move abroad, it’s just too big to keep as an occasional holiday bolthole, when back visiting extended family.

Goodwill and good workmanship characterised the rest of the house’s finishing, with unlikely links forged: electrical contractor was Michael Lynch, whose wife even made the curtains, and she and painter/decorator, Gerry O’Halloran, were encouraged to offer their input: “their attention to detail and suggestions were incredible.”

Irish trades and craftspeople were to the fore in a project that took about 12 months, and nearly all the fittings and furniture were Munster-sourced, though the baths did come from Derry.

Despite its size, it’s essentially a four-bed home (with a one-bed guest/au pair apartment over the double garage), with three of those main bedrooms en-suite and pretty much stand-out, in terms of tiling and sanitary ware.

One or two suites wouldn’t be out of place in a five-star hotel — think of the Galway G Hotel, or Killarney’s Europe Hotel, as a possible inspiration for one or two.

“I love colour, form and function,” says the woman who put the zap and the zing (and a certain Casey’s furniture purple sofa, with crystal buttons for a further bling touch) into this exceptional Kerry home.

Despite a love of colour, the main house materials are pretty much neutral, such as the walls’ timber wainscoting, and the masses of marble flooring (supplied by Fitzgibbon Brothers) expertly laid by master local craftsman, Noel O’ Sullivan.

The house has two sets of stairs: one’s circular, a dramatic spiral with glass treads and stainless steel rails, linking the main double-height living area with an overhead part-mezzanine games/snooker room.

The other’s at the Gone with the Wind grandeur end of the scale, curved and cantilevered, with marble treads and wrought-iron railings.

The latter handrail was done by Tim Somers, Tralee, while both stairs were handcrafted by Jack Culloty, Ballymacelligott.

Lighting is a mix of recessed lights in coffered ceilings (with surround-sound speakers in ceilings as part of a CAT 5 wired for everything ethos, plus CCTV and alarm also heavily integrated) with some knock-out light pieces and chandeliers. Lighting was done by old friends, Chris and Shirley Higgins, of Castle Lighting, “who even hung them for me over a good chat.”

A favourite room has been the kitchen, overlooking the patio and garden on a sunny morning, and here the units are Nolte, by Celtic Kitchens, in Douglas, Cork: it’s pure high-end, with island (with retractable extract) in walnut and creams, Miele appliances throughout, including two double ovens, a microwave, coffee machine, warming drawer, along with a teppanyaki hot-plate, convection plates, built-in wok and fryer.

Phew, thirsty work — just as well there’s a home bar in a formal dining room corner, which, along with the main living room, really gets into gear come evening time.

LOCATION: Blennerville, Tralee

PRICE: €720,000

SIZE: Sq m 465 (5,000 sq ft)

BEDROOMS: 4 plus 1

BER RATING: B1

BEST ASSET: High end modern home

VERDICT: A very well-conceived and built home with attitude and personality, yet it’s adaptable in mood with simple changes of furniture.