Donnybrook House, County Tipperary
Detached six-bay two-storey country house over basement, built c.1730, with two-bay pedimented central breakfront. Hipped slate roof with rendered chimneystacks and carved limestone eaves course. Roughcast rendered walls. Timber sliding sash windows, six-over-six pane to ground and first floors and three-over-three pane to basement, with cut limestone sills set in square-headed openings. Lunette window to pediment. Timber panelled door with traceried fanlight and timber sash sidelights, having channelled limestone surround and open-bed pediment. Flight of carved limestone steps leading to entrance.
Appraisal
This country house retains its original form and many interesting features and materials such as the slate roof, limestone sills and timber sash windows. The door surround is particularly notable in that it is well designed and executed. The façade is enlivened by interesting architectural features such as the pedimented breakfront and lunette.
For sale Sept 2022
€650,000 Donnybrook House,Ballymackey,Nenagh,E45XY07
5 bedrooms, two bathrooms.
Description
An elegant two-storey over basement Georgian residence dating back to circa 1730 together with stone cut outbuildings and 4.45ha (11 acres) of prime lands. “Donnybrook House” enjoys a secluded parkland setting. To the rear of the dwelling house there are a host of stabling / storage facilities and a holding yard. The house which is set back approximately 500 metres from the public road is approached over a private avenue. This magnificent Residence which has retained all of its original period features, boasts extensive views of open unspoilt countryside. It is pleasantly situated on a quiet country road within 8 km of M.7, 9.5 km of Toomevara, 20 km of Dromineer (on Lough Derg), 11 km of Nenagh, 56 km of Limerick and 154 km of Dublin. To those anxious to procure a compact country estate in a friendly rural district the Agents confidently recommend inspection.
Accommodation
Basement Entrance Hall 7.3m x 1.6m. with stairs to overhead accommodation Office/Living Room 4.0m x 3.8m. with cast iron fireplace with inset stove Kitchen/Dining Room 6.4m x 5.0m. with Stanley oil fired range, fitted kitchen units (hard wood) TV Room 3.9m x 3.8m. W.C /Utility 2.5m x 2.2m. with wc, handbasin & plumbing for washing machine Store Room/Pantry 6.4m x 2.1m. Ground Floor 16.0m x 6.8m. Entrance Hall 4.25m x 3.8m. with hardwood floor and door to stairs Drawing Room 6.6m x 5.3m. with marble fireplace with solid fuel stove, cornices, centrepiece & hardwood flooring Dining Room 6.7m x 5.3m. with black marble fireplace, solid fuel stove & hardwood flooring, coving and centrepiece 1st Floor large landing Bedroom One 5.4m x 3.7m. with hardwood floor, marble fireplace with cast iron inset and coving Bathroom 5.4m x 5.4m. with bath, double shower, wc and handbasin Bedroom Two 5.4m x 3.6m. with marble fireplace with cast iron inset, coving and hardwood floor Bedroom Three 5.35m x 2.8m. with carpeted floor 2nd Floor Landing area/Relaxation Room 6m x 3.75m. with hardwood flooring and stove with wooden fireplace surround Bedroom Four 6.6m x 5.4m. with open fireplace and hardwood floor Bedroom Five 6.5m x 5.5m. with open fireplace, marble fireplace, hardwood flooring and handbasin Outside Milking Parlour 5.7m x 19.6m. Cow Shed 5.5m x 5.3m. cobble floor 6 bay hay shed with enclosed storage Stone Built Coach House 11m x 5.5m. lofted Stone derelict outbuildings Two Stables 6.3m x 5.5m. fully lofted Floor area of house 385 sq m
Features
Services Water from private well, electricity, broadband, oil fired central heating and drainage by septic tank.
BER Details
BER: Exempt BER No: Performance Indicator:
Directions
From Nenagh proceed on R445 eastbound- passing The Abbey Court Hotel. Continue for 1km, turn left sign posted Cloughjordan, continue on this road for approx. 4km, take right turn after Fairways Bar/Restaurant. Proceed straight on until one reaches the next crossroads, go straight through and continue for 3kms, property on right hand side.
Negotiator Details
William Talbot
Viewing Information
Strictly by appointment with Sherry FitzGerald Nenagh on 067 31496
Georgian gem with colourful history on the market for €650,000
by Elizabeth Birdthistle Tues Sept 6th 2022
Donnybrook House, on 4.45 hectares near Nenagh, in Co Tipperary, has been partly modernised by its current owners.
Donnybrook House near Nenagh in Co Tipperary. It was originally built in 1730 for Thomas Poe, a lieutenant in Cromwell’s army.
Dating back to 1730, Donnybrook House, a fine Georgian gem on prime lands 11km from Nenagh in Co Tipperary, was described in Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of 1837 as “a handsome mansion, pleasantly situated”.
It was built on lands owned by the Poe family, since Thomas Poe, a lieutenant in Cromwell’s army received grants of land (estimated to be about 600 acres originally) under the Act of Settlement during the reign of Charles II.
It has had quite an interesting array of residents over the years, including Ellen Poe, a granddaughter of the original owner. She is immortalised in the book The Doctor’s Wife Is Dead, by Andrew Tierney, a Nenagh-born archaeologist and descendant of the Poe family.
In the gritty legal drama, Tierney relates the story that shook the core of genteel Victorian society, when Ellen Poe’s husband, a violent, philandering monster of a man, Dr Charles Langley, sent a letter to the local coroner requesting an inquest into her death. An issue arose, though, as Ellen was still alive when Langley requested the inquest.
The property lies at the end of a 500m sweeping driveway
The townspeople were so incensed by her death – through neglect – that they formed a mob and stormed the doctor’s residence as she was carried out in a pauper’s coffin. She had spent the last two months of her life confined to a garret “as small as the black hole of Calcutta”.
The townspeople were so incensed by her death – through neglect – that they formed a mob and stormed the doctor’s residence as she was carried out in a pauper’s coffin. She had spent the last two months of her life confined to a garret “as small as the black hole of Calcutta”.
After the Poe family, the Bayley household took up residence. One of the descendants of Rev H Bayley, who had fathered 23 children, was Helen Maria Bayley, who married the Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton.
He described her as being “not at all brilliant”, while a later woman of the Bayley family was the sole resident at Donnybrook House until her death. Legend has it her two black hounds watched over her body until it was discovered, and curiously two decorative canine heads now flank each side of the front door.
After this, the property was owned by Harry Howard, who penned his memoir And the Harvest is Done, giving a glimpse of life on the land in Tipperary.
It was eventually purchased by its current owners in 2019 for €400,000, according to the Property Price Register, and they undertook some modernisation and redecoration.
They replaced the open fires with stoves in the main reception rooms.
“For the first time, last Christmas we had to open the doors of the diningroom during dinner, and this has greatly added to the comfort of the house during winter,” says the owner, who is downsizing.
The house, which retains all its period features, is in a super location, at the end of half a kilometre of private driveway.
Set two storeys over a raised basement, the house has two bedrooms on an attic level with three further bedrooms on the first floor. The livingroom and kitchen lie in the basement, while two fine formal reception rooms lie at entrance level inside a flight of granite steps, where the two canine heads still survey the land.
“There is a lovely bog walk at the bottom of the drive where we walked our 5km every day,” says the owner, referring back to the times of Covid restrictions.
The 4.45 hectares (11 acres) of ground are teeming with wildlife including “a fox who patrols”, hares, rabbits, Eurasian kestrels and some buzzards, who survey their territory from an old oak tree that was struck by lightning.
“One afternoon a pine marten peered in the kitchen window and got as big a surprise as we did,” the owner recalls. “We think we also have barn owls, as we have found some of their pellets.”
Speaking of barns, to the rear of the house is a lovely courtyard, which has the possibility of conversion into two cottages. In addition, there is a walled garden which the family have cleared.
In its heyday “servants tended an extensive walled garden richly ornamented with formal parterres, providing fruit and vegetables for the kitchen, and a pleasant retreat for quiet walks and solitary retirement,” according to Tierney’s novel.
While new owners will more than likely want to upgrade the electrics, the heating and the windows at some point, it is still a very smart Georgian home on lovely grounds. It is Ber-exempt and is now on the market through Sherry FitzGerald Talbot seeking €650,000.
Irish Historic Houses 