Kilkenny: €1.25m A globetrotting Irishman's 'big house' has two wings which can be bought separately, says Michael Parsons
Seán Hennessy commutes from rural Kilkenny to Tokyo. Not every day mind, but often enough to put the odd bottleneck at Gorey or tailback on the M50 into perspective. He is the photograph director for a major Japanese photo agency. As if that weren't glamorous enough, he has decided to swap the stylised Land of the Rising Sun for the swashbuckle of Latin America.
Having bought a small building in Panama city, he plans to open a top-end, boutique hotel in a country which he believes offers exciting opportunities.
The quixotic Hennessy is undeterred by Panama's reputation for fearsome humidity and a stretch of coastline called Golfo de los Mosquitos having "experienced much worse while working for Concern in Bangladesh".
This global gallivanting means that Jenkinstown House, his home since 1998 - an immensely interesting property some five miles from Kilkenny city - will be auctioned by Ganly Walters in Dublin on October 3rd.
The property has two "wings", which can be bought separately. A 279sq m (3,000sq ft) three-bed house on 0.3 acres has an AMV of €900,000, and a "church-wing" of 242sq m (2,600sq ft) on 0.5 acres has an AMV of €350,000. The entire has an AMV of €1.25 million.
During an earlier career as a model in Japan, Hennessy once starred in a television advertisement for a housing development called Sekisu. Which is pronounced "sexy" in Japanese and possibly how a Channel 4 property presenter might describe the house. But this is The Irish Times.
Jenkinstown House is essentially the surviving west-wing of a "big house" largely destroyed by "the wind that shook the barley". Built with cut limestone in the early 1800s, the Gothic-style, castellated structure is hung with original 19th century Dublin street lamps and has been fully restored, re-wired and re-plumbed.
The sylvan setting adjoins a 1,000-acre deer-dappled forest park, managed by Coillte, and offering wonderful walks.
Dublin is only 60 miles away and entry to the planned M9 (Dublin-Waterford) motorway a mere three miles from the house.
Electronic gates open to reveal a pleasing stone fountain and three high-ceilinged, beautifully fenestrated floors of sophisticated living space. There's a hint of Spanish parador in the delightful blend of tradition (a hallway tiled with gleaming jet-black Kilkenny marble, solid oak floors, a teak staircase with handmade wrought-iron railings) and stylish contemporary twists (the internal walls are a mix of exposed brick and vibrant colour).
Outdoors, enjoy days of wine and roses on cleverly tiered terraces overlooking a cornfield bordering a daisy-meadow where dairy cows loll with the indolence of plump Titian nudes. Neighbouring Wexford may be the south-east's sunniest county but the Kilkenny air is always warmer. Here, the last rose of summer also blooms. That's not the Smithwick's talking. Thomas Moore was inspired to write Ireland's best known 19th century song on a visit to the house: "Tis the last rose of summer; Left blooming alone; All her lovely companions; Are faded and gone". Pace Brian Kennedy, but now that song really is a cry for love.
The "church wing" - which incorporates the cavernous great hall of the original house and a deconsecrated church with stained-glass windows, confession box and a tabernacle built into a wall - awaits an imaginative architect.
Currently zoned commercial, it offers enormous potential as a business or cultural space. Alternatively it could, subject to planning permission, be re-connected to the main residence to create a very grand house. The former chatelaine, Lady Bellew, who notoriously kept a pet monkey atop her shoulder, would surely approve.
