Have you ever leafed through Country Life, ogling the impossibly perfect country houses and wondered 'can they really be so lovely?' Yes, they can. There's one 12 miles from Limerick city, writes Michael Parsons
West Limerick is not quite Xanadu but, close to the village of Ballingarry, a Kubla Khan businessman has created a gentleman's pleasure dome. The impact is as pleasing and unexpected as would be coming across, say, Fortnum & Mason on Main Street, Rathkeale.
Estate agents who, with gay abandon, use words like "impressive", "immaculate", "exceptional", "delightful" and "charming" to describe properties that are anything but (not to mention three-bed semis) ought to be frog-marched through this estate and flogged till they repent of sin.
But blue-chip Cork agent Michael H Daniels & Co is being almost understated in using these, and other glowing epithets, to describe Ballyneale House on 125 acres which is for sale by private treaty with an asking price of €8 million.
The owner, Englishman David Pearl, is executive chairman of a fund management business in Gibraltar and splits his working life "between London, Gibraltar and New York".
He spends "as much of the winter as possible in Mexico [where he has built a "dream house"] and of the summer, in Ireland" where he has poured torrents of money into a no-expenses-spared upgrading of the late-Georgian house and estate which was in a "dilapidated condition" when he bought it nine years ago from American philanthropists Lewis Glucksman and Loretta Brennan Glucksman.
There can surely be no finer small country estate on the market in Ireland today and agents who beg to differ should submit details - along with a lightly-seasoned Panama hat.
Nor is there likely to be a better property investment in 2007. €8 million is not a trifling sum - and, yes, maybe you could buy the Massif Central, all the apartments in some dreary east German city, or, the entire Republic of Montenegro for the same price - but in the through-the-looking-glass world of Irish property prices, Ballyneale House is a steal.
Blue Kilkenny limestone steps descend from the house (and some 743sq m/8,000sq ft of pristine accommodation) to pleasure grounds worthy of Jane Austen. Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet would enjoy dallying on the silk-soft lawns and admire the Giverny-esque lily pond, Althorp-style ornamental lake with an island reached by a willow-pattern bridge, exquisite rose garden and the forbidden pleasures of a sunken garden. The parkland beyond is shaded by glorious oak and beech.
Behind the house, a series of courtyards lead to stabling for 10 horses, an organic kitchen garden to outdo Chelsea's finest, a solid oak greenhouse and a hazel nuttery. There are masculine pleasures to delight the boy lurking inside every tycoon: a private golf course; a grass landing strip for light aircraft, a boot/gun room for local hunting and shooting; a fishing lodge on the shores of a lake well-stocked with carp; a luxurious, air-conditioned cinema with seating for 12; a billiard room; an all-weather tennis court; and, a heated, outdoor swimming pool.
Guest accommodation and staff quarters are top notch.
The attention to detail is stupendous. The 2,741 yards, par 35 golf course is played from nine tees to three greens and is "kept like Augusta"; the wood-panelling in the billiard room was French polished with 90 coats over a 30-month period to achieve a mirror-smooth finish; a 10-acre strip of land was planted with 2,000 indigenous Irish trees to celebrate the Millennium; a computer-automated generator ensures that the entire estate continues to hum in the event of a power cut; access throughout is via a network of hardcore and gravel roadways; and, the gardens and parkland are floodlit by night.
Ballyneale appears to be flawless. Pearl puts it quite simply: "You couldn't spend a fiver; everything is perfect."
So why on earth is he selling up? The former polo player (who once enjoyed chukkas with Prince Charles) at Windsor Great Park's Guards Club (no, dear, not the Síochána variety) breeds greyhounds in England and horses at Ballyneale, adores Ireland, believes that "the country has changed for the better over the past decade", considers Dublin to be "the entertainment capital of the world", and thinks "the Irish business community is wonderfully vibrant".
He enjoys life in rural Limerick where "a lot of very nice people live around Ballingarry", is fond of golf and hunting and has developed a liking for hurling.
He's not, in fact, leaving Ireland but has a "passionate desire" to create something even more wonderful - but modern - in the same area and has applied for planning permission. He believes this generation ought to build contemporary grand country houses and create an architectural legacy which will be enjoyed and admired by future generations - in the way we now so admire Georgian houses.
If Pearl gets the nod from Limerick County Council, the result could well be a house which, 200 years from now, people will refer to as "a stunning example of late Bertiean".
