This article is from page 6 of the 2013-10-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
MILLIONAIRE Clare farmer JJ McCabe has added to his growing property portfolio in the past week by buying one of the most famous stately homes in the county.
And, in making his latest purchase, the colourful Clarecastle man has stayed close to home in purchasing Carnelly House in his native parish, which dates from the mid 1700s and is just 1km from his farm.
“It was up for auction in Ganley’s of Dublin and I bought it,” he told The Clare People .
“I belong to one of the oldest families in Clarecastle and we have been farming there for over 200 years. Carnelly is one of the oldest houses, it was up for auction and I went for it,” he added.
Mr McCabe, who earlier this year bought the Kilkee Bay Hotel and Ashford Court Hotel in Ennis, paid € 600,000 for the period mansion and its adjoining 74 acres.
This purchase price represents an 80 per cent fall in eight years – before the height of the property boom, the house and adjoining lands was sold by the Gleeson family in 2005 to a Dublin-based consortium called the Master Group for € 3m.
Carnelly House was built between 1830 and 1840, having been designed by Clare-born architect Francis Bindon as a wedding present for his sister, Anna, who married George Stamer.
The house has nine bedrooms, a gate lodge, a walled garden, original two story outbuildings and a courtyard.
Up until 2005, the house, which is in very good condition, was owned by the Gleeson family, who operated it as an up-market bed and breakfast.
The largest room in the house is the drawing room of 17’ by 33’, which has ornate stuccoed ceilings and walls by the Francini brothers and an elaborate niche with Corinthian pillars: doors on either side lead to the house’s conservatory. Other rooms include a formal dining room, morning room, library with extensive bookshelves, and all the working rooms for the house like kitchen, utility and boiler room.
After its sale eight years ago, Clare County Council granted planning for an € 80m development being promoted by Master Group. This included the construction of a 64-bedroom two-story private nursing home, as well as therapy room, a chapel, security room and 135 residential units. The foundations for this development were laid, while the planning permission was renewed in July 2011 until April 2017.