Delightful dozen: Our favourite houses of 2022
| Published date | 01 December 2022 |
Agent: Gallagher Quigley
One of my favourite discoveries as a student at University of Limerick in the early 1990s was the Hunt Museum on the top floor of the main building - a surprising and unconventional location for this eclectic collection belonging to art collectors John and Gertrude Hunt.
It was a thrill to get the chance to visit and write about Drumleck House in Howth in September, and to hear the stories of the decades the Hunts lived there and the famous visitors they entertained, such as Elizabeth Arden, who was enchanted by their rose gardens; and Jackie Kennedy, who relished the peace of the 10-acre paradise.
The sea glitters and shines through almost every window, the views are stupendous, the house magnificent and what swimmer could fail to be won over by indoor and outdoor pools, and a wander through sublime gardens to get to a gate giving on to the Howth cliff walk and access to a tiny stony beach and the Jameson swimming hole below?
MIRIAM MULCAHY
Blackwater Castle, Castletownroche, Co Cork
Status: There have been active inquires from the United States and Ireland for both private and commercial use since the property came for sale in November with an asking price of €2 million.
Agent: Sherry FitzGerald Country Homes
It was certainly the history and heritage of Blackwater Castle that made it my favourite house this year. The site's heritage goes back 10,000 years with traces of megalithic scatter, not to mind the neolithic jawbones, a link to St Patrick and a murder hole, which added a layer of mystery to the place.
What was interesting was the number of Irish people who had no idea what a Sheela na gig - a female fertility symbol with enlarged genitalia - was, despite the fact that Ireland has more of them than anywhere else in the world. So to have your own on site is a bonus.
Couple its history with visits from Cromwell and Sir Walter Raleigh and the fact that it has a manageable nine suites perched on a defensive promontory 70ft above a beautiful river with double-bank fishing rights and the package becomes unique. For a moment I had a notion if I'd the €2 million asking price, I'd swan around as the next chatelaine of this glorious historical pile.
ELIZABETH BIRDTHISTLE
3 Carlisle Avenue, Donnybrook, Dublin 4
Status: Came to the market in October asking €1.375 million; recently sale agreed for a sum in excess of this.
Agent: Sherry FitzGerald
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