The Retreat, recently launched through joint agents Sherry FitzGerald Country Homes and Sherry FitzGerald Pollard FitzGerald, stands overlooking Lough Gur, near Bruff, Co Limerick. The substantial estate, extending to 94 acres (38 hectares), is poised at the edge of one of Ireland’s richest archaeological and mythic landscapes.
Home to continuous habitation since around 3000 BC, Lough Gur’s undulating shores have set the stage for Neolithic farmers, Bronze- and Iron-Age inhabitants, along with early Christian monks and Norman knights.
What was a modest 18th-century farmhouse has since been converted under the watchful eye of restoration architect Michael Pledge, into a substantial home at the edge of this magical spot. In addition to the house, the offering includes a self-contained guest house and staff quarters. The place was bought by its current owner in 2008, who says it took almost a decade to achieve planning permission for her lakeside retreat.
Lying at the end of a kilometre-long driveway, the house was immortalised in Mary Carbery’s book The Farm By Lough Gur, which recounts life here in the 19th century, with a bit of Irish mythology of fairies and banshees thrown in for good measure.
Look inside: Period redbrick on South Circular Road imbued with eclectic style for €750,000
De Blacam and Meagher-designed townhouse in Sandymount for €850,000
What will €295,000 buy in Italy, France, Sweden, Tenerife or Co Cork?
Look inside: Lakeside retreat on the historic shores of Lough Gur for €3.75m
Steeped in history, Grange stone circle is nearby – the largest of its kind in Ireland – dating from the Bronze Age with 113 contiguous standing stones. A window to the past, the 4,000-year-old circular enclosure, which is a State-owned national monument, was used for sacred rituals, as recent excavations have unearthed thousands of shards of broken pots, animal bones and other offerings. Along with the circle, the local visitor centre has crannógs, ring forts, wedge tombs and dolmens. In essence, every leaf, tree, stone and settlement here hums with history.
Now centred by a landscaped quadrangle, the restored farmhouse, which is accessed by reclaimed Indian temple doors, has two spacious ground-floor bedrooms, both of which are en suite and wheelchair-accessible. Both have access to a private door (which was the original front door) that opens directly into the gardens giving remarkable views to the lake. These rooms are accessed by a long conservatory – ensuring privacy – from the diningroom and large kitchen space. The double-height kitchen and dining area has an Aga with a Belfast sink along with both gas and electric ovens and opens into the a drawingroom with magical views to the lake.
There is also a study on this floor, while a staircase leads upstairs to a reading space – again with superb views over the lake – alongside a third bedroom and dressingroom.
Adjacent is guest accommodation, which has the benefit of being self-contained. Here there’s ample room for visiting guests in two bedrooms, while this accommodation also has a large kitchen/livingroom.
There is further accommodation in a separate building, a one-bedroom unit with a kitchen and living space, and this is also where the comms and plant rooms lie.
Viewers will swoon at the 20m swimming pool that features Turkish tiling, which is also echoed in the dressingrooms that lie adjacent to a sauna.
It will be the grounds though that will really captivate new owners, where 750 native and species shrubs were planted in 2021 under the guidance of designers Catherine FitzGerald and Mark Lutyens, along with renowned landscape designer Ralph Wickham. Extending to four acres – while the remaining 90 acres are prime pastureland – the gardens deserve a special mention.
Lands are divided into 13 stock-fenced fields – suitable for sheep and cattle – and one area is ideal for hill training, according to brochure notes. Equestrian facilities include a superbly converted American barn which has two foaling units, rubber matting and a sand turnaround area. Small paddocks enclose a circular walkway – ideal for showcasing yearlings, mares or their foals.
In addition to a full croquet lawn, there is a kitchen garden laid out with raised beds, while what was a bullpen is now reimagined into an orchard and nuttery with the old stone walls now draped in climbing roses and trellised fruit trees.
While the house is close to Bourchier’s Castle – viewed from a path that leads down to the lake – beyond are the ruins of Black Castle, where the Earl of Desmond, Gerald FitzGerald, cast off English allegiance and sparked a rebellion in 1573. This is also a place of legend; it is here that goddess of summer, wealth and sovereignty, Áine, is said to lie asleep in the caves of Knockadoon Hill. A rocky outcrop known as the Old Hag’s Chair is said to be her birthing chair and a place that mortals should never sit. Close by, a spot known as Knockadoon circle is said to be the entrance to the fabled land of Tír na nÓg, or the land of eternal youth.
While the legend of Tír na nÓg is said to be a supernatural realm of everlasting youth and health, you might not live forever at the Retreat, but for health, relaxation and a complete escape from the perilous world we find ourselves currently in, it will most certainly live up to its name. The Retreat, which is Ber-exempt and extends to 940sq m (10,118sq ft) in total over three accommodation offerings, is now on the market seeking €3.75 million. It lies 25 minutes from Limerick city and 45 minutes from Shannon Airport.
