The daughter of the late Cathal Ryan is selling the luxurious eight-bedroom Georgian house on six acres in Kildare where she grew up, writes EDEL MORGAN
A WEEK AWAY from her wedding at Brompton Oratory in London, actor Danielle Ryan, the daughter of the late pilot and businessman Cathal Ryan, is selling her six-acre country estate, Stacumny House in Celbridge, Co Kildare. She currently shares it with her partner, Richard Bourke, and their two young children when they are in Ireland.
Joint agents Sherry FitzGerald and Christies International are asking €6.5 million for the estate, which is luxury on a grand scale, with an eight-bedroom mansion, 90-seat theatre and a traditional-style pub called Ryan’s Snug in its grounds.
The estate is like a mini-village with a Moroccan-themed swimming pool complex, an all-weather tennis court, a herb garden, orchard, office building and three houses used as staff accommodation.
Danielle, a businesswoman and Rada-trained actor who has appeared in The Tudors, moved to Stacumny in 1994 when her late father bought it. Cathal, the son of Ryanair and GPA founder Dr Tony Ryan, died in 2007 within months of his father’s passing. Tony Ryan owned the Lyons Estate nearby.
She spends a lot of time in London where she’s renovating an 18th-century property in Westminster. “I’ve loved living here and and am sad to go, but we’re not here that many days.
“It was my father’s house, he picked it. I grew up here and loved it but we’re just about to get married and want to create our own legacy.”
She and Richard, a barrister and nephew of Mary Robinson, plan to buy a base in Dublin, probably a Georgian house “on one of Dublin’s squares”.
Stacumny House dates from the 1700s and was the seat of the BradstreetBaronetcy in the 19th century. It is a vast 940sqm (10,118sq ft) three-storey house which has had bits added by almost every owner and has recently been upgraded with geothermal and underfloor heating.*
There are a number of lovely reception rooms downstairs including a warm and elegant drawing room with bookshelves and leather chairs. There’s also a formal dining room with fabric-lined walls, a rust-coloured library, a morning room, a very pretty country-style kitchen, a large office and an impressive wine cellar.
Upstairs, off the first return, the magnificent main bedroom is bigger than the average apartment. Formal in style, with a massive four-poster bed, lots of draping and swagging and two glittering chandeliers, it looks like it’s awaiting a royal visit. It has a double-height walk-in-wardrobe and an enormous en suite.
On the top floor of the main house there are three quaint double guest bedrooms with low ceilings and William Morris-style wallpaper. Two of the bedrooms are en suite.
On the other side of the return is a more recently-renovated wing with more bedrooms – two of which are large and lavish, with four poster beds – and a playroom. There’s also a series of rooms with low ceilings – perfect for little people – including a children’s’ bedroom, bathroom, large playroom and nanny’s double bedroom.
Outside in the courtyard complex is the glamorous pool building which has a Moroccan-themed room with wraparound seating; it has a lantern shipped in from Marrakech, a crystal blue 20m swimming pool, sauna, wetroom/massage room, kitchen and gym.
And then there’s the theatre, the Old Barn Playhouse. Danielle, who is a director of TCD’s drama school, Lir Academy, says she caught the acting bug while treading the boards here with the Stacumny players, made up of assorted family and friends.
One-off annual productions for charity included Juno and the Paycock, The Cripple of Inishmaan and Dancing at Lughnasa, with post-theatre drinks in Ryan’s Snug, the estate’s own traditional pub.
“We’ve had some mad sessions there,” says Danielle. The night often ended with dinner served in the Old Barn Playhouse, which can be quickly turned into a dining space.
There are three two-bedroom period properties on the grounds used as staff quarters: the original coach-house, gate lodge, and a house that was once a piggery. These are decorated like miniatures of the main house, albeit on a less lavish scale.
The six acres of grounds include an orchard as well as a lovely, carp-filled water feature, an office building and a formal garden.
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*This article was amended on February 22nd, 2012, to correct a factual error
