Thatch the way, uhuh uhuh, we like it

Five-star luxury and thatched Irish houses don’t normally go hand in hand – with the latter, you normally take the rough (and sometimes uncombed) with the smooth.

In the case of Kenmare’s Villa Verde, however, it’s sort of five-star hotel smooth all the way. After all, this reed-roofed whopper was dressed to impress, by the Hoyer family team originally behind the Sheen Falls Lodge, the top Kerry hotel, which changed hands just last year, acquired by an Irish/UK consortium called Palladian for c €5 million.

There were three of these over-sized thatches built by the Danish Hoyer family over a decade ago, on a separate gated adjacent estate, and used by hotel guests looking for a very different Irish hospitality experience, sort of lite on the turf fire, and heavy on the luxury.