A century ago this very month, an advertisement in The Irish Times ran a listing for Inver Lodge in Connemara that extolled the catch of its then fishery: “Fishing extends over many lakes and several rivers, and is famous in Ireland. In an ordinary year [sic] 20 to 50 salmon and 1,500 to 2,000 sea trout should be caught, besides many brown trout. Good sea fishing close by.” Is it any wonder our stocks are so low?
Owned then by the second Earl of Dudley, aristocrat, politician and sailor William Humble Ward, who had been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1902 until 1905, rent for the season on the Victorian pile was £600, or about £46,000/€53,867 today.
Included were the wages of the head game keeper and a gardener, while “the tenant has produce from the garden and cows”.
Mind you, as the ad – from a man with Humble in his name – mentioned eight bedrooms for servants alone (between two houses also included here), “the tenant” may never have stepped inside a kitchen.
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There’s a bit of historical coincidence here in the wilds of south Connemara; when Dudley purchased the estate during the early 1900s, his neighbour for about six years was none other than Patrick Pearse. Side by side lived two men: one representing the British empire’s hand in Ireland next to the Irish revolutionary who’d help demolish it.
It’s a bit of a feat that this early Victorian house was constructed at all, as it stands on its own private island.
Built at a time before engines – so transport was by row boat – it goes to explain how, despite starting in 1837, the pile was completed closer to the 1900s. But the Famine would also have played a considerable factor.
In a most romantic setting, Inver Lodge remains unconnected to the mainland save for a pontoon footbridge. Quite the illustrious guest list has traversed it or its water beneath, including King Edward VI, a regular visitor it seems during the Earl of Dudley’s tenure.
It was later purchased by the Odlum family of the Irish baking brand who sold it on to the Guinnesses under the proviso Mr Odlum Snr got to live out his years there.
Later, according to brochure notes, it appears Ms Corrine Odlum with husband Col John Millard – both passionate anglers and hunting enthusiasts – persuaded the Guinness family of their love for the house and to part with it for a reputed £10,000.
It last sold in 1997, when it was described in The Irish Times as “one of the oldest fishing estates in Connemara . . . [with] a comfortable club-like feel, the kind of atmosphere that takes decades of leisurely living to create”.
It still exudes that feeling, of relaxed elegance where owners have enjoyed the lands that surround them.
Images of the interior show the property is packed with a lifetime of antiques and collectables and while the main house will need updating, it’s the accompanying holding that makes this property all the more interesting. And the very reason lords, earls and kings, not to mind a revolutionary scholar, fell for this location on the western seaboard.
The main house stands in a haven of natural woodland, while mature plantings abound on a near two-acre island. All around are coves and inlets framed by rugged coastline, while the mainland gardens extend to over 21 acres (8.6 hectares). Then there’s 45 acres of mixed-quality land, some with lakeshore frontage.
For fishing, the 10 lakes and associated rivers give an extensive body of water, with brown and sea trout along with Irish coarse species.
If you’re handy with a gun, you could probably live off your quarry of duck, pheasant, snipe, woodcock and deer as exclusive shooting rights cover an area of approximately 9,600 acres. With an abundance of mountains, low-lying lakes, rivers and bogs – even if you didn’t hunt – you’d never walk the same lands twice.
There are three properties in total. The main house: on its own island, Inver Lodge extends to a significant 417sq m (4,500sq ft). It has four bedrooms and overlooks the lake, with moorings for boats up to 18ft. Its Ber rating is G and, like most happy homes after 25 years, will want upgrades in places.
On the mainland, Shannavara House, is also substantial at 233sq m (2,500sq ft). Though having undergone considerable upgrading, its Ber is D2. It has a slipway to the rear and operated as a guest house for hunting and fishing parties.
The gate lodge, also on the mainland, is a 113sq m (1,200 sq ft) three-bed (Ber of C2) in need of some upgrading. Its setting allows a walk to the lakeshore along a small wooded path.
Of further interest are specimen rhododendron – with more than 300 varieties, along with 100 registered varieties of hydrangea. The 21 acres of gardens – that also include camellia, magnolia, ceanothus and a huge variety of trees – were undertaken with the assistance of Dr Lothar Heft, director of the Rhododendron Park in Bremen, Germany.
This idyllic spot is now on the market through joint agents Colliers and Matt O’Sullivan, seeking €2.9 million.
