The artist John Kindness and his wife, Danae, are putting their Carlow home on the market as they prepare to leave Ireland for Rome. Tullow Lodge, just outside the village of Tullow, Co Carlow, stands in grounds of six and a half acres. It will be auctioned by local agent Patrick Dawson on June 21st and carries a guide price of £400,000-plus. Once you have successfully negotiated the tricky entrance gates and made your way through the front door, the first thing that might strike you is the word "potential." The seven-bedroom house, built in the 1700s, has many period features and atmosphere galore but it does need refurbishment. The Kindnesses have lived here for the last five years and in that time have put most of their energies into creating a marvellous garden.
Now John Kindness has been offered a fellowship at the British School of Rome where he can pursue not only his love of art, but his other passion - Italian cooking. Danae, director of the Design Yard in Dublin's Temple Bar for the last six years, is looking forward to the move but regrets leaving her garden behind. Both are originally from Belfast , which is where they met and married. They decided to put down roots as soon as they saw Tullow Lodge. They carried out immediate improvements when they first moved in and the house has been rewired and replumbed, and an oil-fired central heating system has been installed. A house long rather than deep, it boasts seven bedrooms, a studio, sittingroom, diningroom and kitchen. Once home to the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, one of its bedrooms has an ornate ceiling and is thought to have been a private chapel. Although in need of renovation, there are a number of features worth mentioning.
The staircase is wider than average, built to allow the sheer volume of ladies' skirts during that period. The wide-shouldered door-surrounds are very impressive and in good repair.
Numerous little steps leading off the landings, which go both up and down into the various bedrooms are another quaint characteristic of the house. In the rooms where the Kindnesses have decorated, the choice of canary yellow and vibrant blue captures the sunlight and gives an airy feel to the place, especially the bathroom which has two windows and is en suite to the main bedroom.
Almost all the windows in the house come complete with working wooden shutters.
One of the bedrooms has been converted into a very bright studio which John describes as being his "dry studio": this is where he paints. There is potential here for a stairwell leading down into his "wet studio", an impressive room, starkly painted, which is where he works on his sculptures. This room reaches the full height of the house, and offers under-floor heating as well as a full-length glass door overlooking the gardens.
Elsewhere in the house, the kitchen, with its Aga cooker, is unchanged. New owners are likely to totally refurbish this area whilst retaining the handsome windows which are a feature. The adjoining diningroom and sittingroom each have original fireplaces. Some work has been done here in terms of decor but there is still a lot more to do. The gardens are impressive: Danae, who writes a regular gardening column for Limerick Leader, is a fervent organic gardener and is proud of her vegetable patch with its red onions, leeks, garlic, rocket, and purple broccoli.
Aside from this, there is plenty of colour from the seasonal changes in the numerous borders which surround the house. Elsewhere on the grounds, the couple have reclaimed large areas of lawn which they have resown and landscaped. There is also a small orchard, three outhouses, a milking shed, coach-house and a grass tennis court. Much of the land is surrounded by mature trees, giving privacy to the property.
Originally the house came with only two and a half acres, but the couple bought an extra four acres to make it more private. Add to this the fact that they have planted saplings all around the border areas and your seclusion is guaranteed for the future. There is planning permission for a separate entrance to the property.
Commuting to the city is feasible, according to Danae who does it daily, driving into Carlow (12 miles) and getting the train to Heuston station. Travelling time by car is about one hour, fifteen minutes.
