History, heart and horticulture: behind the gates of €1.6m Carewswood House in Castlemartyr

Carewswood House blends historical pedigree, thoughtful renovations and elegant landscaping in a rare East Cork offering near Castlemartyr

Fri, 06 Jun, 2025 - 07:50

Catherine Shanahan

Castlemartyr, Co Cork
€1.6m
Size	448sq m (4,822sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	6
BER	C2

THE gift of a tree to mark the birth of daughter number four sowed the seed that led to Gill and Jack Hornibrook buying Carewswood House in Castlemartyr 29 years ago.

At the time the couple was running a business set up by Gill, Glendonagh Nursing home, in a period house in Dungourney.

“Neil Williams [the late owner of Carewswood House and Garden Centre] called after the birth of Rachel and he brought a tree to plant at Glendonagh, where we lived at the time.

“He told us that himself and Sonia (his wife) were selling Carewswood, that it had become too big for them, and he said ‘We think you and Jack would be a great fit’.” As Gill was a keen gardener and Jack’s background was in building and property development (Cork-based Hornibrook Builders) the notion of taking on a large period home on 40 acres, plus landscaped grounds, garden centre and cafe, while continuing to operate a nursing home, and a flower shop in Midleton, in between the business of raising four children, seemed, well, entirely manageable.

Incredibly, the dynamic duo pulled it off. For years, they ran multiple businesses, before eventually leasing out the garden centre, which they sold in recent years to a couple that had made a very good fist of it while leasing it out.

“Daniel (Leahy) and Juulika (Lomp) are a fab couple, and they love it as much as we do. You just don’t get walled gardens like that anymore, unless it’s a top class property,” Gill says.

Carewswood House is, inarguably, a top-class property.

Built as the ‘dower’ house for the early 1700s nearby Castlemartyr House (dower houses were home to the widow or unmarried sisters of an estate owner), it was originally owned by the Boyle family, Earls of Shannon and baron of Castlemartyr. To this day you will find the remains of a tunnel that used to link the dower house, which dates to the 1800s, with the Great House, better known these days as five-star Castlemartyr Resort.

While the pedigree of Carewswood House is immutable, the gardens grew from good stock too.

Descendants of a chap called Barnabas Sall (or Saul), who worked on the demense grounds at Castlemartyr House, ended up as landscapers in Washington DC, including in the grounds of the White House. You’ll find a plaque commemorating their achievements (dedicated to John Saul) in Castlemartyr.

Gill was the gardening powerhouse at Carewswood and enjoying popping down to the nearby garden centre — it’s handy these days when visitors drop by.

“We can all stroll down to the café,” Gill says.

While Gill was the green-fingered half of the couple, Jack oversaw any building work.

“We’d the best of both worlds. I had the ideas and he had the people to implement them,” Gill says. She adds that the “two greatest additions we made” were a beautiful, vaulted, south-east facing garden room, reached via French doors from the kitchen, and a front porch, with portico and columns, that faces south.

“When we bought the house, two big teak doors made the hallway very dark. Now, it’s a wonderfully bright space.”

A home bar and lounge area were added after Gill created space by removing a hidden backstairs. It had been concealed inside a suspiciously thick wall which Gill convinced one of Jack’s workmen to saw through.

Home bar was a terrific entertainment space

“When we sawed through, we found the stairs, so we took it out and fitted a bar,” Gill says.

As a big fan of entertaining, she could shepherd guests straight to the bar while finishing off dinner preparations in the roomy kitchen, where herself and food buyer/blogger Rachel — daughter number four – have many happy memories of cooking up a storm.

“She was thinking of cheffing, but she was cured after doing a shift or two at Castlemartyr Hotel,” laughs Gill.

Great big kitchen which opens to the sun room

They’ve enjoying dining outdoors too, on the patio, or in a sandstone paved courtyard, where an old stone archway with intricate iron gates, topped by a bell and a weathervane, harks back to the days when bells were used to summon staff from service wings or announce the arrival of visitors.

“We did up the courtyard and we restored the gate lodge too. There was a tree growing through it when we bought the property and the land was ploughed fields,” Gill says.

Jack and Gill did a tremendous job of Carewswood House and gardens and Gill’s exceptional good taste is reflected in the décor of its myriad rooms.

It’s main reception rooms (drawing room and formal dining room, where the solid maple floors were salvaged from a former Midleton hotel ) have the high ceilings of a period home; the spacious basement (with external access) houses a games room with exposed stone walls, as well as a bathroom and family lounge; on the first floor, all five bedrooms have en suites.

There’s a laundry room too and a pantry and a home office with underfloor heating.

Outdoors, renowned South African landscaper Susan Turner worked on a new layout with Gill in recent years, resulting in a curved drive and an exquisite Koi pond.

It’s all good to go to the next set of owners. It even has a C2 energy rating, impressive for such an old house.

“This is a house you can walk into with your toothbrush,” Gill says. “It has the grandeur of a big, old house, but even though it is very big (almost 5,000 sq ft), it is very manageable and practical, very warm and inviting.”

She leaves behind many memories, mostly joyful (every family celebration) and a few tinged by sadness, mainly the passing of Jack on Christmas Day, 2023.

“He adored it here and he got his dying wish, that he would leave the world from home, with his family around him, myself and our four daughters, Victoria, Zara, Jacqueline and Rachel,” Gill says.

As she prepares to downsize, joint agents Ray Sweetnam of Casey & Kingston and Adrianna Hegarty of Hegarty Properties, are bringing the house and a one-bed gate lodge, on three acres, to market for €1.6m.

Ms Hegarty says the graceful property has been superbly maintained.Mr Sweetnam says it’s “one of a kind”.

It’s a terrific location: a short walk from Castlemartyr village and close to the sea, with beaches nearby at Garryvoe and Ballycotton, while Midleton town is just a 10 minute spin and Cork city is a half hour drive.

VERDICT: Demand for high end properties in East Cork is tracking upwards, with US interest on the rise among Irish buyers looking to return. Queries are in too from Cork City and Midleton, with keen interest in this exceptional home.