Officers of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) walked into a virtual Aladdin's cave, albeit a somewhat musty one, when they took possession of the Irish assets of a convicted Dutch drugs felon, Jan Hendrik Ijpelaar, near Sneem in Co Kerry yesterday.
The main house, Clashnacree House, on an estate of 20 acres, is one of the great houses of Kerry and was built in the late 19th century by the Bland family.
Clashnacree is a sister house - it was in fact the Bland Dower House - of the main Bland residence near Bishop's House, now the Great Southern Hotel.
Clashnacree was once the home of a 19th-century architect, James Franklin Fuller, a son of one of the Blands and designer of the Parknasilla hotel.
Mr Ijpelaar, from Rotterdam, bought the house in 1992 from a Dutch national, Mr Ernest Weeland. He paid £300,000 for the property.
Gardai fear Ijpelaar may have been involved in the importation of drugs through nearby Kenmare Bay, which the house overlooks.
There is much relief locally that the fine house and its magnificent gardens will no longer be neglected. It had, as one local put it, "gone to rack and ruin" recently. Water has damaged much of the upstairs and the kitchen wing of the six-bedroom residence.
Among the contents of the mansion is an art collection that includes Dutch watercolours, numerous oil paintings of pastoral scenes, some portraits and a series of prints.
Despite a number of break-ins there are many fine pieces of antique furniture downstairs. A large oak drinks cabinet is full of Waterford glass.
The matching dining-room suite contains several valuable pieces of silver and fine ware. Lighting includes several brass ceiling candelabra and a central hall cut-glass chandelier.
CAB officers were yesterday carefully analysing all items.
The property features stables, garages, a period lodge, an outside swimming pool and a sauna.
Ijpelaar also owned an island, described by some as "a large rock" and known on Ordnance Survey maps merely as island No 69, with no other name.
Security cameras on trees near the entrance, signs and an intercom at the entrance testify to the extreme privacy of the house situated off the main road on a byroad that leads to Rossdohan pier.
Ijpelaar's association with south Kerry predates his purchase of Clashnacree House, it is understood. CAB officers were yesterday investigating a site near Templenoe, some miles from Sneem, that is believed to have been acquired by him in 1982.
One of the outstanding features of Clashnacree House is its gardens, some of which are visible from the main Kenmare-Sneem road alongside the 12-hole Parknasilla golf course.
Yesterday the gardener/caretaker and his wife, both Dutch nationals, were too upset to speak at length.
Mr Peter Martius's association with Clashnacree predates that of Ijpelaar. Some 30 years ago he reclaimed much of the 20 acres from wilderness.
"We are glad it is all over now," said Ms Rolly Martius.
She and her husband lived in the lodge on the grounds until 1997.
Yesterday Ms Martius said the gardens "were beautiful once. We hope they will be again," she said. They now live at Tahilla nearby.
The couple had the keys to the house for some years but never knew what to do with them as no one contacted them.