Back to the future in beautiful Lismore
admires a large 175-year-old residence with coach house which has been subtly and expertly brought into the 21st century.
Many centuries of rich Irish history attach to Lismore, the west Waterford heritage town on the River Blackwater, cosseted amid some of Ireland’s most glorious and best-preserved inland and river-set scenery, and blessed by preserved buildings, including the famed Lismore Castle.
Although not at old as the town’s first settlement (which dates itself to St Carthage in the 7th century) this restored and cherished Georgian home called Breffni has its own centuries and decades of tales to tell, including its most recent chapter, as a family home of the highly-regarded conservation engineer and heritage building consultant, Chris Southgate whose latest project includes conservation work on possibly Ireland’s most iconic and best-known castles, Blarney Castle.
Built in 1843 on the then-crystalising South Mall in Lismore’s town core, close to and uphill from the cathedral, on lands acquired from the sixth Duke of Devonshire William Spencer, Breffni was originally built as a home for a Church of Ireland clergyman.
Later on, it switched its religious accommodation allegiances, transferring to Catholic Church ownership, and then entered a lengthy period as the local presbytery.
It was acquired by a couple from the UK, a barrister and his wife, in the 1990s, as Lismore itself made strides in acknowledging its built heritage, whilst adding artistic and cultural events and supports, marking it out as a destination with international appeal, both for visitors, and for arriving and aspiring residents.
Those 1990s buyers carried out a detailed and appropriate restoration process on Breffni over a period, respecting the integrity and fabric of this now-175-year-old Georgian home, restoring sash windows, adding comfort, factors, and all the while enjoying its authenticity.
It was done well enough to satisfy the standards of someone like Chris Southgate, who admired it endorsed it enough to buy it five years ago in a slumped market, with his wife Karen Lysaght and three young daughters, as their family home.
They carried on the good work in a gentle, non-intrusive way, and despite loving every moment, they now face a move back to Cork city, primarily for work reasons.
The family are now on the hunt in Cork for a home, hopefully of similar appeal and vintage, and one that might respond to conservation and restoration nudges and their own unique skillset. But, as that hunt begins, well, as they say in the TV shows and cookery programmes, ‘here’s one they prepared earlier.’
Breffni’s a detached, mid 19th century three-bay Georgian home, with 4,300 sq ft of family accommodation and up to seven bedrooms, thanks in the main to the presence of an attic level, with extra bedrooms and good additional floor area, all well insulated, as well as rear double-glazed conservatory, so that it’s all quite a warm home for its age and size, say the owners (it’s a protected structure, so is exempt of BER requirements).
Set on a prime private half acre, walled at the back, on Lismore’s South Mall, it’s just been listed for sale this week with David Reynolds of Sherry FitzGerald Reynolds, with a €595,000 price guide, and that’s for a 4,300 sq ft period home in fine fettle, in a keen Lismore South Mall town setting, set on a half acre with grounds, privacy and the bonus of a 1,300 sq ft stone coach house, to the back, across a cobbled yard.
That 19th century three-bay structure has recently been reroofed with slate, and refloored, and is set for conversion should any new owners plan a mews, studio conversion, home office, or other fresh purpose, with the walled garden beyond, and with a further, back conservatory with vine, while the gable wall of the coachhouse is currently draped in abundant, flowering honeysuckle.
The main house (the word ‘residence’ seems more appropriate?) has two formal reception rooms, with the expected ceiling plasterwork, coving, roses and fireplaces, shutters and Georgian, six-over-six pane multi-pane sash windows, graceful hall with original staircase and fan-lit front door with glazed leaded side panels and polished, original brasses and locks on the stout and ornate front door, stripped back to its original wood grain and hues on the exterior, and then finished with a clear coat to show its crafted provence.
Other rooms include a kitchen, with small baby blue Aga, granite worktops, and views out past the sink to the exposed stone arches of outbuildings, a scullery, library, study, and guest WC.
Up the curves and turns of the painted and carpeted staircase, with hardwood rail, are four bedrooms, with three en-suites and a family bathroom.
Continuing upwards, the second floor has three more bedrooms, under sloping ceiling with exposed beams and Velux windows, and there’s also a further bathroom.
Wearing its patina of age lightly, conserved and not over-restored, Breffni’s a quality townhouse of scale option for those in search, perhaps, of the good life in a true period era home and indeed a vibrant heritage town that’s proven itself over time, long periods of time.
It shows on the Price Register as having sold back in early 2014 for €380,000, 18 months after an adjacent South Mall home sold for €500,000, and the most recent South Mall sale was a home called Anmount, which made €415,000 in a deal which closed early this year.
Lismore’s an open community, supporting festivals spanning opera, science (thanks to links to Robert Boyle) travel writing (more than a nod to local legend, Dervla Murphy), writers, artists, musicians, and a host of diverse societies, as well as being a base for sports, walks, River Blackwater exploration, and angling. Breffni more than fits that hospitable and welcoming picture.
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