Liss Ard estate may be split

West Cork:  €2 million Two years after being offered on the international market at €6 million, the Liss Ard estate in Skibbereen, west Cork is still for sale.

Now the 160-acre property, which has been run as an arts centre and a guest-house is likely to be broken up, with auctioneer Charles McCarthy seeking €2 million for one of the two main houses on the estate.

Lake Lodge, a substantial four-bedroom Victorian house overlooking a private lake, may be sold separately from the the larger Liss Ard House, which comes with outstanding gardens and a number of outbuildings and cottages.

Lake Lodge, a smaller package, comes with its own castellated entrance, Tower Lodge, a two-storey structure which is also included. The two-storey fishing lodge stands on around 14 acres of grounds with lawns sloping down to the water.

As Lake Lodge is at some distance from the main house, its sale will not take away from the principal property according to Charles McCarthy.

While the entire estate has been viewed by many, both as a business venture and a private home, it has yet to attract a serious buyer, though there is apparently some interest from a consortium with experience of retirement villages in the UK.

Liss Ard is owned by businessman Viethe Torske, who purchased it in the late 1980s and, with his wife Claudia, opened Liss Ard to artists and film-makers, at one stage getting substantial government funding to develop the gardens.

An annual rock festival in the grounds attracted artists such as Van Morrison, Bryan Ferry, Patti Smith and Oasis.

Liss Ard House was built in the 1850s by The O'Donovan, chieftain of the O'Donovan clan, but it changed hands several times in the last 100 years.

In the early 1970s it was reportedly bought as a bolt hole for the Swiss government in the event of nuclear war.