Golden Age swagger at €875k Kerry property with sunken garden

Irish Examiner

17-05-2025

The decorative louvre window shutters at the front of The Kerries give the extras spacious Tralee property a little of the look of a French manor house.
Inside, the décor in the high ceilinged drawing room is everything you would expect in a 19th Century house while the two large chandeliers and rich gold swag curtains give the room a touch of the glamour and elegance of a French salon.
'I wanted it to look 18th Century,'' says the owner, who when renovating in the 1970s and 1980s was well ahead of her time in creating open plan living space and adding en suite bathrooms.
When she and her late husband moved into the house in 1968, it had already been in her husband's family for almost 20 years. 'The rooms were smaller, closed off and dark – I wanted to make it so that I could walk from room to room downstairs and I wanted more light,'' she reveals.
What followed was a slow – room by room renovation - which involved the knocking of walls and the addition of more windows and patio doors.
Grand staircase at The Kerries
'We put in large en suite bathrooms - this was before houses had small en suites, she says adding that the local builders came back so often over the years that they became friends.
Her favourite story about her home involves the sunken patio garden at the western side. 'One sunny day I said wouldn't it be nice to have garden sheltered from the wind '' she says, explaining that she didn't mean this as anything more than idle throwaway remark.
But shortly afterwards her husband called to tell her that he had the use of a digger which had already arrived and to ask her how deep she wanted the sunken garden to be. 'This digger had been hired by the film crew of Ryan's Daughter and my husband got it for a few hours when it wasn't being used.' And for the last 56 years – the sunken walled patio area – accessed by a short flight of steps – has been the centre point of the gardens , providing shelter from the south west winds , just as she wanted.
As previously mentioned, The Kerries is an exceptionally spacious – property with 374 sq metres of living space which includes a 50 sq metre ground floor apartment in a converted outbuilding which has a bathroom, a kitchen and a bedroom.
While the layout of property may be a little more modern than you would expect, the décor is old world and elegant and the furnishing are period appropriate The entrance hallway still has its original elaborately carved mahogany staircase and timber panelled walls as well as a chandelier added by the owner for a touch of glamour.
The long high ceilinged drawing room – which stretches from front to rear – used to be two rooms. 'There was a drawing room and a breakfast room- but we turned them into one,'' says the owner who decorated it in 18th century style and filled it, and the rest of the house, with antique furniture and period paintings.
An artist, who painted and sold her work in earlier years, she has also hung some of her own paintings and included some modern ones.
Alongside the drawing room is a formal dining room which has a lower ceiling and smaller chandeliers as well as a set of glass panelled double doors which open into the kitchen.
The terrazzo floored kitchen has timber ceilings, a large antique dresser which came from Carmarthen in Wales, a selection of fitted units and another set of glass panelled doors which open into a smaller less formal sitting room/ music room with flagstone flooring and rooflights.
Beyond this is the former boot room, where the owners used to keep guns for winter shooting , but which has long since turned into a sauna room.
The upstairs originally had six bedrooms but now has three, including two with en suites. The main bedroom has three large windows including two which overlook the sunken garden and face west towards the coast.
Its marble tiled en suite has a corner jacuzzi bath and a full height window.
'I wanted to be able to sit in the bath and look out on the gardens and the mountains,'' explains the owner. The bathroom and both en suites are elegantly finished in high quality marble tiling.
Surprisingly for an 1880s built house, The Kerries has a C3 BER. The owner says they replaced the windows twice over the years and also fitted oil fired central heating.
The 1.1 acre acre of lawned and wooded gardens which surround the house were also landscaped and replanted over the years while the long driveway has been fitted with electric gates.
Creating colour in the garden was, the owner discovered, much more difficult than in the house. 'You needed to know about soil, varieties and other things,'' she says, admitting that had plenty of time to gain this knowledge over the years.
Amongst the multitude of plants and ornamental shrubs and trees she planted to provide all year round colour are Camelia, Rhododendron, Azalea, wisteria and hydrangeas.
Listing The Kerries with a guide of €875,000 Paul Stephenson of Sherry FitzGerald Stephenson Crean says it's a wonderfully unique home with beautiful gardens." Located close to the edge of Tralee, it's just three km from the town centre, ten km from Fenit Beach and three km from Cockleshell Beach.'
VERDICT: A remarkably elegant home with large private walled gardens. it will require careful modernisation.