New apprentices and TLC needed at €950k Killarney National Park dream hideaway home built by Bill Cullen and Jackie Lavin

THE chances to buy a modern mansion, built fairytale-style, deep within the woods of Killarney National Park with a thatched guest lodge, don’t come along very often — hence the fairly swift positive market reaction to the arrival of Killegy House for sale on behalf of receivers Deloitte.

The ‘second’ home of one of Ireland’s best known business and celebrity couples, Bill Cullen and Jackie Lavin, was built to their spec in 1995 in Ms Lavin’s native Kerry around the time they were developing their five-star Muckross Park Hotel, but which went into receivership after ‘the Crash’.

Despite having over 5,500 sq ft of crafted space done in period home style, the couple’s dream Kerry pad Killegy House — unlived in now for a number of years and in need of rescue — it’s just half the size of the couple’s ‘other’ home, Osberstown House near Naas. Osberstown was, in fact, built a full two centuries before Killegy, in 1795 and has 43 rooms after being restored by the duo who fronted TV3’s The Apprentice after they bought it in 1990.

The celebrity couple have been putting up a long battle with Ulster Bank to retain control of many of their assets as they tried to negotiate a settlement.

But, Killegy House went to the open market last week, priced at €950,000 by joint agents Catherine McAuliffe of Savills, Cork, and Killarney agent Tom Spillane, and by this weekend five viewings had taken place by potential purchasers, four Irish and one European living in Kerry.

Interest from further afield will follow, predicts auctioneer Catherine McAuliffe who notes the strength of overeas buyers in Ireland’s upper market echelons since Covid-19 first struck.

Key to its appeal is the rarity of the setting, deep within the 26,000 acre Killarney National Park, with its mix of mountains, lakes and forestry, amid some of Irleand’s most revered scenery and which was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1981.

Set on its own 34 acres, Killegy is completely private, reached off a road within the park, and there isn’t the sight of a single other house from this property, the selling agents note.

In the period since it was built by Bill Cullen and Jackie Lavin, subsequent planting around it has matured and part of the downside is that the lakes and some of the mountain views have been encroached upon, and are now best savoured from the property’s upstairs rooms until a partial tree cull, harvesting or thinning takes place.

Internally, this 5,500 sq ft house, plus its winsome 1,200 sq ft thatched guest cottage, itself features lots of wood, with masses of oak panelling for a period home feel, and the joint agents describe the interiors as Italiante, with some frescoed ceilings, gothic windows and lots of stained glass.

Features of the main, L-shaped, five-bed and all en suite residence include a double-height space with gallery/mezzanine off the main bedroom suite overlooking the conservatory, two staircases, gym, and snooker room, all under slate roofs, with stone exterior walls and cut stone around windows and doors.

Externally the grounds include a hard surface tennis court, a private lake, pasture and wild gardens plus woods, with rhododendron lining the approach avenue.

Creating the courtyard cluster feel is the detached but adjacent two-storey ‘hunting lodge’ (deer are more than likely going to graze the grounds given their preeminence in the National Park), which has one of its three bedrooms at ground level and two en suite bedrooms above, via a spiral stairs.

The lodge’s thatched roof needs fairly immediate attention and is currently part-draped in plastic to protect it from the elements until expertly addressed by a thatcher, or done in an alternative material.

Savills’ Ms McAuliffe says the entire property is now likely to get an upgrade and, given the size and scale of it, she reckons that if its next owners want to get it back to the quality it had in its 1990s prime, a total budget might be inching closer to €2m to include purchase and renovations.

• Coincidentally, €2m is also the price Bill Cullen and Jackie Lavin’s 12,000 sq ft Osberstown House had been on the market at since 2019.

It’s now marked ‘Sold’ on agents Goffs website, but it has yet to appear on the Price Register. The couple had a successful auction of contents in July, listing 650 lots and which realised €370,000, above expectations.

VERDICT: A lot of passion went into making Killegy House a true one-off, now, it just needs to feel the love once more.