‘Guinness is good for you”, or so the advertisement used to say. Well, the Guinnesses were also good to themselves. Ballard Park began life as an 18th-century hunting lodge for the brewing family, who must have had the most amazing times roving across the lush valley landscape, jumping over the small streams, and revelling in the views of the Wicklow Mountains, including the dramatic Lugnaquilla.
Later on, Ballard Park in Ballinaclash sobered up a little and became a rectory, for another member of the Guinness family who took the cloth, and it remained in church use until the 1960s. One bedroom is still fondly called the "Bishop's Room", because it is where the bishop always chose to sleep.
When the present owners bought the house in 1978, it had fallen on harder times. There were bats, damp and all those other hallmarks of a steady decline into vague dilapidation that you could imagine.
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“The kitchen was just floorboards laid on earth. But we were in our 30s, we had energy, and we loved it,” says the owner, who is selling to move closer to children and grandchildren.
“We did a vast amount to it,” she recalls as we drink Earl Grey tea, and I feel the house’s peaceful atmosphere settle me.
This work included moving the kitchen to the front of the house. They also brought stones in from the garden to build a fireplace in the den, added a conservatory, took down some light-blocking outhouses and trees and, then, house completed, turned their attention to the garden.
There are just over 17 acres, mostly laid out in paddocks, and with one wooded acre. But four of these acres are gardens: in a lovely mix of the semi-formal and a meandering but brilliant planting that mingles colours and shapes in rich and stunning profusion. Two streams wind through, so the sound of running water is a tinkling background to our walk as I discover paths, lawns, steps, avenues, beds and borders, and a sweet courtyard with stone-cut outbuildings that is running with chickens, and where previous owners once kept a cow.
Gardener
We collect some eggs and head back out into the sunshine, and the owner tells me the stories behind various trees and shrubs, planted on family occasions or given as gifts by friends who came to stay. It's a place that needs a dedicated gardener to continue this tradition.
In front of the house is a wide, flat lawn that used to be a tennis court, and could easily become one again. We turn to face the mountains in the west, rising above the valley, reputedly the longest glacier valley in Britain and Ireland. "The sun sets over there," the owner says as she points to a perfect vee.
We cross the walled patio and go back inside to look around the house.
It’s full of lovely features: a wooden staircase dating from 1720, deep-set windows with wooden surrounds (some at the back are PVC), arches, architraves and open fires. A diningroom opens through to a more formal sitting/drawingroom, and runs from front to back so it’s always full of light. Upstairs the house rambles over different levels, testament to additions and extensions over the centuries. At the top, one of a pair of attic rooms has been decorated as the perfect grandchild’s bedroom up in the eaves, while the other room is used for storage. Two of the bedrooms are en suite, and there is a family bathroom too.
The old coach house next door is included in the sale. It has three bedrooms and has been fully renovated.
In the gardens, you’re a world away, though the local pub is just around the corner. Arklow is 16km and Wicklow 19km away. The location is handy for golf courses, hill walking and horse riding. And if you were thinking of harking back to the house’s former history, the Bray, Wicklow and Shillelagh hunts are nearby, and there are syndicate shoots in the area.
Even if you aren’t planning to live a little closer to garden heaven in Ballinaclash, the owner opens the grounds to the public for charity events. The next event is on June 13th, from 2pm to 6pm, in aid of the Kampala Music School. It costs €7.50 on the door. Cream tea included.
