Ileclash Fermoy Co. Cork

Property |
Blackwater pad
moves with time
The estate agent has sold the sumptuous Ileclash three
times before. It’s easy to see why, writes Tommy Barker
“
I’VE sold this house three
times before, in the last 40
years or so,” says estate
agent Maurice Cohalan to
the owners of Ileclash, as we’re
greeted by Diane and Michael
Frazer on the threshold of one of
the River Blackwater’s finer period homes, replete with historical
and movie world references.
The veteran auctioneer has laid
down his credentials, as he and his
estate agent daughter Jackie Cohalan bid to make it a fourth company sale at Ileclash, around its
guide price now of €3.5m. He’s not
the type to add the usual financial
services disclaimer that “past performance is no guarantee of future
returns”: no pressure, then, in this
€3.5m Cohalan Downing sale
jointly with Colliers in Dublin.
This pristine Georgian original,
with later Victorian wing, two picture-perfect guest cottages, walled
gardens, and extensive networks
of limestone caves entered down
by its riverside walk and all with
fishing rights, has had a string of
appreciative owners, and is probably at its absolute peak right now.
Ileclash has most infamously
been associated with Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Fascist
Union in the run-up to the Second
World War and who was friendly
with Hitler and Mussolini – quite a
troika of notoriety.
Mosley married one of the Mitford sisters, Diana, in a 1936 ceremony which infuriated British
society, taking place in the Berlin
home of Nazi propaganda maestro
Joseph Goebbels, with Hitler in attendance.
Interned in 1940, the couple later
lived for a period in Clonfert, Co
Galway, and in 1955 bought Ileclash from Percy Benson, who had
restored it, using it primarily for
holidays before later decamping
for full-time residence in France.
Diana’s diaries, published in
The European, recalled Mosley
fishing on the Blackwater and,
when she climbed down the cliff
through their grounds, the river
looked “as blue as the bay of
Naples in August”.
Landscape, topography and
river setting continue to make privately-set Ileclash as special today
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as it ever was, set back past formal
gardens and 60’ up on a limestone
escarpment and buff by grotto-like
cave entrances along the Blackwater river bank; indeed as pretty
as many an Italian pastoral idyll.
Its 12 acres include restored
woodland and riverside walks, a
mounded ring fort or tumulous,
half an island in the river island,
and single bank fishing rights of
over 1km on the Blackwater,
where salmon fishing had a long
pedigree and eel beds are now protected.
Blackwater Valley is host to
some of the country’s finest properties and estates, from Lismore
Castle and Ballynatray at the
river’s mouth to Strancally Castle,
Dromana House, and Michael Flat-
IRISH EXAMINER Property & Interiors
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7.05.2016
ley’s Castlehyde, on the other,
upriver side of Fermoy from Ileclash and hoping to sell for €20m.
Views from the exceptionally
well-maintained grounds at Ileclash (the farm land, bar 12 or so
acres, was kept back in previous
sales) include the Roche clan’s
Licklash Castle remains, as well as
an earlier Norman tower. Still
standing proud over the river is
the steel Victorian railway bridge,
Carrickabrack Viaduct, which
linked Mallow to Waterford before
it closed as a rail line in 1967.
Spectacularly, that bridge had a
key role in the 1966 First World
War film The Blue Max, starring
George Peppard, James Mason,
and Ursula Andress. Stunt pilot
Derek Piggott passed between its
arches up to 30 times for filming,
with less than 2’ wing tip clearance
on each pass.
Today, Ileclash is rightly described as “one of the jewels of the
Blackwater Valley” by the property’s selling agents as it gets a fresh
market launch (we covered it here
several years ago with a €4m-plus
asking price, via other agents).
Current owners the Frazers
purchased it after their plans to
buy a Georgian house in West
Cork met repeated hurdles. Buying the five-bay Georgian Ileclash
off-market for a reported €4m from
the Feehan family, they spent an
estimated €2m or so on conservation and upgrades under the
guidance of architect Peter
Murphy of Frank Murphy & Co,
including a new roof and all new
sash windows throughout, redoing
decoration to an exceptional level.
They also redid the formal box
hedging and sheltered walled
gardens, and terraced riversides
walks and climbs.
Supremely comfortable, with
underfloor heating at ground level,
it has five reception rooms — two
side by side have elegant bay
windows facing the river valley,
where the Blackwater flows out of
sight beneath the limestone escarpment.
Most rooms, including the hall,
have original fireplaces, plus
there’s a conservatory by the
kitchen with roof lanterns, overlooking a walled garden, where
red squirrels feed with impunity
from bird boxes in this enclosed,
manicured, green oasis.
A first-floor library links to a
guest suite in the latter, Victorian
rear wing. There are five large
bedrooms, one with large bathroom leading to dressing-room,
and the comfortable country cottages give more space for accommodating big family events and
get-togethers.
A mile from Fermoy, two hours
from Dublin, and 30 minutes from
Cork City and airport, Ileclash is
well-set for entertaining, hospitality, and hideaways.
VERDICT: In terms of location,
quality, and comfort, Ileclash can
hold its head up with the very best
of Munster’s period home buys.
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| Property
Location: Blackwater Valley
Fermoy, Co Cork
Cost: €3.5m
Size: 649 sq m (7,000 sq ft) on
12 acres
Bedrooms: 6 plus 4
Bathrooms: 6 plus 3
BER: C3
Best Feature: Perfection
IRISH EXAMINER Property & Interiors
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7.05.2016
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