Elegant Georgian residence with links to Wolf Hall

The €8.5m home of an art dealer and antiques collector is attracting interest from the UK in the wake of Brexit

As with many great demenses, Sopwell Estate didn’t start out with a British name or in British hands or with an elegant Georgian home as its principal residence.

Ballingarry, Co Tipperary
€8.5m
Size	1,322sq m (14,235sq ft)
Bedrooms	10
Bathrooms	5
BER	Exempt

AWARD-winning novelist Hilary Mantel could spin a whole new saga off the back of Sopwell Hall Estate, or at the least a single title spin-off.

The potential is there in its links with the Sadlier family, one of whom, Ralph ‘Rafe’ Sadlier, features prominently in Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy.

As with many great demenses, Sopwell Estate didn’t start out with a British name or in British hands or with an elegant Georgian home as its principal residence. It was once the property of the Gaelic MacEgan clan, who built the still-standing Killaleigh Castle circa 1590. They held on to it until the crown’s policy of subduing troublesome Gaelic chiefs by military means and confiscating their lands meant it wound up in the ownership of a high-achieving British soldier, Colonel Thomas Sadlier, in the late 17th century.

Killaleigh Castle

The colonel set about restoring and upsizing the castle, but in 1745 his grandson, Francis Sadlier, opted for a new principal residence on the estate. He commissioned architect Francis Bindon (also behind Wicklow’s Russborough House) to build Sopwell Hall, leaving the castle uninhabited.

Sopwell House

The house remained in Sadlier family ownership until the late 18th century when Mary, a descendant of Rafe’s, married Frederic Trench, a descendant of French Huguenots. It remained in Trench family ownership until it was bought in 1985 by the current owners, art collector and antiques dealer Michael Ramsden and his wife, Sarah.

“They bought it when it was in a ‘distressed’ state,” says selling agent Callum Bain of Colliers International, who is joint agent with David Ashmore, Ireland Sotheby's International Realty
“A lot of time, effort and money went into restoring it to a level that it now looks every inch like what a good Georgian house should look like. It’s very much in keeping with the period. And it’s very much a family home,” Mr Bain says.

The Ramsdens undertook a comprehensive programme of work, including the removal, refurbishment and replacement of all the windows, and re-wiring and re-plumbing the house, including installing a new zoned heating system.

Rooms were re-commissioned to provide five bathrooms, two new kitchens, a laundry room, boiler house and a roof terrace. The design of one of bathroom is inspired by the French chateau where Napolean spent his last night before being exiled to a remote volcanic outpost.

The restoration of Sopwell Hall conforms to “the best traditions of early Georgian architecture”, Mr Bain says of the house, which occupies a central position in mature parkland.

The spacious reception hall is particularly impressive, lined with distinctive Doric pilasters and divided by a screen of arches. 

High ceilings, tall windows, ornate cornicing and fabulous fireplaces are the order of the day, while a generous landing on the first floor has a perfectly proportioned dome ceiling with a glazed atrium at the apex. 

 There are five bedrooms and four bathrooms on this floor, with five more bedrooms overhead, another bathroom and a games room.

The lower ground floor has a large central hall that opens at ground level to a courtyard and sunken garden. There’s also a kitchen with French doors to a south-facing terrace. In fact there are two kitchens, Mr Bain says, one for family and one geared towards catering on a grander scale. 

“It would have been a good house for entertaining,” Mr Bain says, and the wine cellar suggests this was a task taken seriously.

With overall accommodation running to over 1,300sq m (14,000sq ft), the house easily accommodates five reception rooms as well as a staff apartment, estate office, boot room and stores.

Outside, there are numerous outbuildings in the immediate vicinity of the main house and within the separate walled enclosure around Killaleigh Castle. Of four cottages, two are habitable, Mr Bain says.

The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage says the outbuildings are “of the highest quality” and it describes the seven-bay, three-storey over-basement Sopwell Hall as “well maintained and in good condition after many years of restoration work carried out by the present owners”.

The landscaped grounds are also in good nick, with the perimeter virtually ringed by woodland to create great privacy. When the Ramsdens bought it in 1985, the house came with 60 acres, but they added parcels over time so that it now runs to circa 300 acres.

There are extensive lawns, a hard tennis court, a sunken garden, a walled garden and vegetable beds.

Mr Bain says that, despite being “wonderfully secluded”, the estate, with an €8.5m AMV, is just 20 minutes by car to the town of Birr, Co Offaly, while Dublin Airport is less than a two-hour drive away.

Sopwell Hall’s price tag puts it out of reach of ordinary mortals, but there is interest among those who move in more rarified circles, including from the US, Asia and mainland Europe.

“It’s better than expected given Covid,” says Mr Bain.

There were additional inquiries from the UK over Christmas, “which might be to do with a Brexit uplift”, Mr Bain says.

For now though, viewings are curtailed. The situation is more straightforward for the Ramsdens, who have already downsized to a smaller house.

VERDICT: Elegance personified