Irish dancer Michael Flatley is to sell his Co Cork home as he plans to spend more time in New York to supervise his Lord of the Dance shows.
Mr Flatley, whose father Michael died earlier this year, said he would take away many joyous family memories from the 18th century Fermoy property.
“I’ve had almost 20 years at Castlehyde and it has been a wonderful experience – some of the best times of my life have been spent there. That is what made this such a tough decision. There are so many happy memories.”
Flatley bought Castlehyde House, which sits on the banks of the River Blackwater, for £3 million in 1999. It is the ancestral home of the first Irish president Douglas Hyde and is regarded as one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture in the south-west.
He has spent more than €50 million on restoration works. The house has 14 bedrooms, a 20-seat private cinema, a spa, two climate-controlled wine cellars, and a three-storey library.
Flatley has other properties around the world: London; Villefranche-sur-Mer, in the south of France; Barbados, New York and Chicago.
Details of selling agents have yet to be announced but it is expected the property will have a price tag of between €20m-€30m.
Flatley married Niamh O’Brien in Fermoy in October 2006. The ceremony was held at St Patrick’s Church, two miles from Flatley’s home in Castlehyde.
The four-storey mansion is set on 150 acres of woodland which Flatley has had planted with 350 trees. He has also had 10,000 rose bushes planted.
In an interview with the Sunday Independent in 2010 Flatley said the purchase of Castlehyde was his best ever impulse buy.
“We were flying (in a helicopter) down on the way to west Cork, and he flew over this magnificent land; it looked so rich and so beautiful, and I said, ‘This must be Tipperary’. I’d always heard about the great land in Tipp, and the pilot said, ‘No, this is north Cork, the Blackwater Valley.‘ It just sounded so romantic.
He then got the pilot to land the helicopter so he could buy the house.
