New houses on a 400-acre estate near Clonmel will fund its transformation into the Marlbrook Hotel and Golf Resort, writes Property Editor Orna Mulcahy
Marlfield House and its 400 acres near Clonmel in Co Tipperary is the latest Irish estate to be converted into a golf resort complete with hotel, spa and upmarket housing in the former orchard.
The €100 million project, which is being undertaken by John Kent's Marlfield Property Developments, will include an 18 hole championship golf course designed by Padraig Harrington and a 70-bedroom hotel run by the former manager of Sheen Falls, Adriaan Bartels.
The development team also includes Kate McCann who was Director of Golf at Mount Juliet for 15 years.
The land at Marlfield had been owned and farmed by the Kent family for over 30 years, and in the last two years the family also acquired the main house.
The Kents, who ran a large engineering business in Clonmel before diversifying overseas, have been planning to develop the land since 2000.
The name has been changed - presumably to avoid confusion with Marlfield House hotel outside Gorey in Wexford - and the aim is to put Marlbrook Hotel and Golf Resort on the map alongside resorts such as Mount Juliet, Carton House, and the K Club.
The company is hoping to fund much of this development by selling a number of houses on the estate, the first of which will be launched from plans in the autumn.
Around 20 will be built in a courtyard setting, by the old orchard and close to the house. They will cost from €700,000 to €950,000 depending on size and location and the price will include two golf memberships as well as fishing rights to the river that flows through the estate.
Marlfield House was built in the late 18th century for the Bagwell family. The central block of the house burned down in 1923 and was rebuilt shortly aftewards by Senator John Bagwell.
The house will now be refurbished and extended to a design by Murray O'Laoire Architects who designed the hotel at Carton House. The same architects have designed the masterplan for housing on the estate which is expected to be developed at the rate of 10-20 units a year over the next 20 years, to a total of about 140 houses.
