Artist's retreat: Jeanne Rynhart's Bantry home for sale for €569,995
Reendesert Ballylickey
THERE aren’t too many households around the country with a James Joyce bust by a renowned sculpture sitting among the teacups in the kitchen, or where instantly recognisable miniatures of iconic lifesize bronzes come at you from every angle, but then Jeanne Rynhart’s former home has many unique features.
From an outdoor swimming pool to dazzling views, Reendesert, Ballylickey is indeed singular, but what truly sets it apart is the tangible sense of the woman herself.
For 40 years, her home acted as the creative backdrop for a legacy that stretches from the mouth of the Hudson River, where Annie Moore, the first Irish immigrant to pass through Ellis Island, is immortalised by Jeanne in bronze, to the Rose Garden in Tralee where another Rynhart public commission commemorates the festival’s first Rose, Mary O’Connor and her admirer, poet and composer William Pembroke Mulchinock.
The renowned sculptor and artist, who sadly passed away in June aged 74, is so much in evidence in her detached home and garden in West Cork's Ballylickey, that it’s easy to imagine Reendesert as some form of artists’ retreat where her fine art talent is suitably honoured, or at least to see the same spirit of creativity carried into the future through inventive use of a magnificent 1.58 acre site and its principal residence (1,800 sq ft) and the various workshops and detached garage (approx 2,700 sq ft) that come with it.
Jeanne’s son, Barry, erstwhile marketing manager of the Rynhart Collection, says it could well appeal to those with an adventurous spirit who see potential in exploiting its proximity to the sheltered inner harbour of Bantry Bay, ideal for all forms of water activity — kayaking, sailing, paddleboarding, water-skiing — you name it.
The separate workshops, studios, offices and garage could be turned into apartments, he says, while the extensive elevated rear lawn, (once earmarked for a family tennis court), with sublime views out over the bay looking across at the Beara Peninsula and out towards Whiddy Island, looks just about tailor-made for glamping pods. There’s already a campsite tradition nearby at Eagle Point, just 150m away.
As a bonus, there’s an outdoor swimming pool (48ft x 18ft) on the lower lawn which Jeanne made good use of into her 70s, as long hours hunched over her handiwork led to neck and shoulder pain, which swimming helped alleviate.
Her son admits it also helped in the popularity stakes to have a home with an outdoor pool and he recalls many fond memories of the good times they had with family and friends in the house and grounds.
The pool needs a few tiles replaced, but is otherwise largely good to go, he says.
He is sad to see the sale of the family home, which Denis Harrington of Harrington Estates is handling and guiding at €569,995, but the house is too large for his dad, Derek, who downplays his role in the Rynhart Collection. Barry says his father oversaw the technical side of the business, developing all of the mould-making and casting techniques.
He also made the armatures — the skeleton or framework — for his wife’s pieces, and the cart used as a framework for the Molly Malone sculpture on Dublin’s Suffolk St is still in the garage.
“Dad made the inner frame and mum put the clay on. They were a very creative couple,” Barry says.
A room off Jeanne’s workshop contains a finished head of 'Molly Malone', an exact match of the Suffolk St bronze, Jeanne’s first lifesize public commission, unveiled in 1988 to commemorate Dublin’s Millennium celebrations.
“If Molly lost her head in Dublin, it meant we could replace it,” Barry says.
He recalls great fun at the unveiling, after a friend of his mother’s, who knew where Irish folk band The Dubliners were drinking, got them to leave the pub and join in the celebrations.
It was pretty wild, he says, “all of Bantry travelled up and mum got to sing with The Dubliners”.
Both Jeanne and Derek got to travel to Ellis Island for the unveiling in 1992 of 'Annie Moore' by then President of Ireland Mary Robinson (there’s a corresponding Rynhart sculpture in Cobh of Annie Moore with her younger brothers). Derek’s passions were for travel, engines and motorbikes — he spent time in New Zealand before he met his wife and has photographs showing him performing daredevil stunts, through burning hoops on a motorbike. He still has a classic motorbike, a Royal Enfield, in the fettling room, where excess material was removed from Jeanne’s castings.
Derek had his own separate workshop for research and development of engines and has in the house a supercharger that he built himself to increase the power of a single-cylinder diesel engine, which Barry says was a world first.
“My father is like MacGyver, give him a stick of chewing gum and he’ll build you a rocket,” he says.
The house began as “a four square bungalow, of common design, dating to the ‘20s or ‘30s”, Derek says, but there were three extensions over the succeeding years. The original bungalow is where three of the bedrooms are located. In the '80s, a corrugated iron lean-to was removed to create a decent size kitchen and subsequently an open-plan sunroom/lounge area was added to the front of the kitchen area, with a giant skylight supported by wooden beams. The third extension was the addition of a huge lounge, dining room and 'bar room', as well as a master bedroom, ensuite. Two outdoor fuel sheds were also added.
There’s a kind of hunting lodge or fishing lodge feel to Reendesert, although it’s safe to say hunting was probably not a Rynhart past time, given Jeanne’s love of wildlife. In fact, she had two pieces displayed at the prestigious Mall Galleries in London as part of one of the Society of Wildlife Artists annual exhibitions. She was also invited to become a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Sculptors, which Derek says put her in line to paint one of the Royal family, although she was not called upon to do so. Jeanne had a particular affection for cats, and Oscar, the family pet, is framed in a painting hung on the brickwork of the sunroom chimney breast, which houses a stove.
Dogs and horses feature in other paintings around the house, including in the massive dining room and lounge where huge west-facing windows frame with awesome effect the nearby Caha Mountains. Sitting in the lounge is like looking out at landscape painting, albeit one where the colour tones can alter dramatically with the weather.
The lounge also has a lovely old piano, which Jeanne played, with a bronze called ‘The Conductor' on top. Barry says while Jeanne created about 35 pieces for the Rynhart collection each year, up to the time it closed circa 2002, she also loved to create her own pieces, of which one was 'The Conductor'. There’s also a fabulous bronze of a peregrine falcon with its claws dug mercilessly deep in a dead grouse, as well as a maquette (scale model) of 'Yes Miss', a Roald Dahl-esque piece that Jeanne did as a private commission, of a towering schoolmistress looming large over a pint-sized pupil.
Barry says overseas competition brought the collection to an end. They had €120,000 worth of orders when they closed. At one time they had 28 employees, among them Bina Cronin, whom Barry says was their 'number one mould maker' and 'the face of Molly Malone'. Indeed Molly’s bodyparts are inspired by wildly different sources.
“She has my hand and my sister Audrey’s collarbone and a chap called Tadhg’s ankles. In fact, mum used him as a model to drape Molly’s skirt around and we took a picture of him in the skirt with his bovver boots. We got a great laugh out of that,” Barry says.
There’s a good-natured loveliness about the Rynhart house, a four-bedroom bungalow with a long leafy driveway and beautifully mature, private lawns, where Jeanne indulged her love of gardening. On the rear lawn sits her 'Flower Girl' sculpture, which the family intends to donate to Schull Community Hospital in thanks for their wonderful care of Jeanne in her final days. The front lawn, overlooked by a veranda, is tiered, with rockeries built from the rocks dug out of the ground to build the swimming pool. There’s also a greenhouse where figs can be seen, as well as the exotic bird of paradise which Jeanne grew from seeds gathered during a visit to the island of Madeira. The greenhouse is in need of TLC and whoever acquires the Rynhart home should be prepared to invest in upgrades on the principal residence and/or repurposing of the various workshops, studios and offices.
Barry reckons it will hold appeal for someone 'wanting to get out of the rat race, maybe someone from the UK, with all that’s going on there, with Brexit, if they wish to remain in Europe'. With remote working firmly embedded, thanks to Covid-19, buyers have greater options.
The area has long had an international flavour, attracting Europeans over the years from Germany, Netherlands, France, Scandinavia, UK and US. Former Falklands governor Cosmo Haskard lived in nearby Tragariff for 40 years in a house built by his father, John McDougall Haskard, a former officer in the British Army.
Whoever buys Reendesert will acquire a spectacular site nestled between Sheep’s Head Peninsula and the Beara Peninsula, on the Wild Atlantic Way, just four miles from Bantry, where there’s an 18-hole golf course, and eight miles from stunning Glengarriff.
They will also have the privilege of living with the spirit of Jeanne Rynhart, if not the bust of James Joyce among the teacups, whose twin, made from the same mould, sits in New York City Library.
Bantry, West Cork
€569,995
Size: 1,800 sq ft (Workshops: 2,700 sq ft)
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 3
BER: D2
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