Sun and sea views in Ardmore

The artist who lives in this four-year-old seaside home in Ardmore has brought her own flair to the interior design

WHAT RECESSION? The car-park of the spectacularly stylish Cliff House Hotel was full to capacity. But no problem. Sir could avail of valet parking. A stroll through the elegant lobby led outdoors to a series of vertiginous terraces overlooking a glittering blue sea.

Mercifully far from the madding sound of massed vuvuzelas, the guests – a mix of the Munster beau monde and weekending Dublin cognoscenti – dined peacefully al fresco from a Michelin-starred menu. Antibes? Monte Carlo? Portofino?

No, a village in Co Waterford, last Saturday afternoon. Memo to Mr Lenihan: please dispatch Messrs Regling, Watson and Honohan on a fact-finding mission. It may be a dead cat bounce but there’s life in the old tiger yet.

On a glorious June day, west Waterford is a revelation – not unlike mainland Greece before the withering heat of high summer. (If only.)

The landscape is dominated by brooding, dark mountain ranges – the Comeraghs and Knockmealdowns – overlooking plains of lush, emerald-green vegetation and a coastline of gentle bays sheltering golden sandy beaches.

Ardmore is one of Ireland’s most attractive seaside villages and it is, thankfully, largely free of the tax-break-driven developments which have destroyed so many resorts. The former fishing village – dominated by a well-preserved round tower – is unspoiled, spruce and smartly maintained. It’s the kind of place which has a powerful and viscerally nostalgic appeal.

A mile away, in the townland of Ardigonna overlooking lovely Whiting Bay, Dublin-born artist Brenda Harris and her businessman husband, David, are reluctantly selling the luxurious house they built just four years ago and relocating back to the capital “for business reasons”. The 371.5sq m (4,000sq ft) house, on a 0.8 acre site, is for sale at €850,000 through Grace Real Estate Alliance, Callan.

Over coffee on the south-facing patio behind the house, from where they occasionally enjoy sensational sunsets and watch dolphins cavorting in the bay, she says that “people will think we’re crazy for leaving but our work is taking us away”.

Harris paints in oil and watercolour and her work hangs in private and corporate collections here and abroad. She’s also an interior designer and it shows. The house looks like the set of a photo-shoot for a moody new advertising campaign for Ralph Lauren home furnishings and wouldn’t look out of place in the Hamptons or New England. External walls are in pale olive framing a turquoise front door.

There are three bedrooms but there is potential for five. On the ground floor are three spacious reception rooms, three bedrooms and a very swish kitchen with an “island” bigger than Inisheer and features including water-and-heat-proof teak worktops, cleverly designed, easy-to-access storage and a hidden wash-up area with a second sink. Upstairs is devoted to a studio area and minstrel gallery but could be converted to a very large main bedroom or some children’s rooms.

The owners stress the eco-credentials of the house which is “insulated to over three times the standard” and is fitted with solar panels and windows triple-glazed by Optiwin.

Another feature which should appeal to affluent greens (and climate worriers do tend to be rather well-heeled) is the garden where raised beds (made from recycled scaffolding planks) are already yielding a supply of beetroot, rocket, spinach, courgettes, runner-beans and “all the herbs”. Why that alone is enough to cause a stampede of D6 yummy earth-mummies to charge down for a viewing.

Outside, the gated front drive is pebbled, with parking for several large cars. A second gated entrance at the side provides access to a large, timber-clad, tin-roofed workshop to the rear of the house at the end of the garden.

The mile-long beach of Whiting Bay is a short stroll away and Harris, who also owns a house in Collioure (Languedoc-Roussillon), insists: “At this time of year the sea water is warmer here than in France”.

• For more information about the artist, see brendaharris.ie