Not many homes come with a harness to allow you to throw yourself off the top floor in the event of a fire. But then again, Castlerock House is not like many homes.
The Victorian three-storey house, in Derry, also has a second World War air raid shelter in the garden, and a system of servants’ bells dotted around the house. It is minutes away from the beach, which brought Katriona O’Connor and her partner Jonathan Kennedy to the village of Castlerock in the first place. He is originally from Belfast, and enjoyed summer holidays in the area when he was growing up, while she is from Athlone, Co Westmeath.
A holiday flat in Castlerock later became a refuge from their busy lives in London, where Katriona still works as a psychotherapist and Jonathan is a partner in a management consultancy. When the Covid-19 lockdown highlighted the need to renovate their London home, they decamped to Castlerock while the work was being done.
The renovation took much longer than expected, which gave them more time to fully appreciate the charms of Castlerock. “And then we realised we didn’t want to go back, which was a real surprise,” she recalls.
They started looking for a site but then they discovered Castlerock House. “I walked around it and thought, no way. This will not work. It’s a money pit,” she says. The six-bedroomed house, which has five reception rooms, dates from the mid-1800s and she felt it was too much to take on.
“But Jonathan talked me into it, and we ended up coming back to look at it again. We bought it in September 2021 and started doing the work in January of 2022.”
The couple paid more than £600,000 (€700,000) for the property, which came with preliminary plans for two more houses on the land. “The garden is deceptively big, so we have an option to build at a later stage. At the moment we don’t want to see another plan for a while, but that’s there for the future.”
Their refurbishment plans centred around celebrating the sea view and bringing more light into the house. They worked with local architect Graeme Montgomery to achieve this. “When I was getting a little bit outlandish, he brought me back in check,” she says.
The original kitchen looked away from the sea, so they demolished the old diningroom and created a large, light-filled kitchen and living area with generous views of the sea. The driveway was reconfigured to ensure that parked cars were not interrupting the view, and everything was done to turn the spotlight on the Atlantic Ocean.
Make friends with local suppliers because they will help out and give you that bit more. And we were very lucky to have some great tradespeople
They kept as many original features as possible, including cornicing, mosaic tiles in the hall, the stained-glass hall doors, and window panelling. “Replacing the windows was a real heart versus head decision. Do we try to renovate and keep the original and have all our heat go out the window, literally, or do we just replace them?” Katriona recalls. “We decided to replace them and insulate the house, while keeping the sash structure. We went with PVC due to easier maintenance and lower cost.”
They put in a new zoned heating system to conserve energy, replaced much of the electrical wiring and added a smart meter.
Buying furniture was a challenge because of the size and scale of the house, she says. “The ceilings are so high. Everything looks very, very small in this house.”
They used local suppliers where possible, and she says she would recommend this to anyone starting a building project. “Take good advice. Take free advice. Make friends with local suppliers because they will help out and give you that bit more. And we were very lucky to have some great tradespeople.”
She says it’s also crucial to focus on the things you can control. “I didn’t do this enough. You have to let go of the things that you can’t control. People will stand there and tell you: “That will be done by the end of the week” and it doesn’t happen, again and again. If you don’t learn to focus on the things you can actually control, it is incredibly stressful.”
There’s a whole top floor we are not even using. It has been stripped out, but we’ve closed the door on it for now
It was all worth it. “This house is steeped in history. It has bags of character and charm,” she says. “Because the house is really tall, if there was a fire it would take too long to get out from the top floor, so there’s a harness you can put yourself into to throw yourself out the window. I love that. And we’ve done nothing with the World War II air raid shelter yet, but there is plenty of time. There’s a whole top floor we are not even using. It has been stripped out, but we’ve closed the door on it for now.”
The couple moved into the house in October and further cut their links with London when they recently put their house on the market.
In January, Katriona will begin day retreats, involving yoga, sea-swimming, meditation, and good food. “The idea is that we will use it as a space for living, but also in a way that it will be good for other people. We’ll see if there’s an appetite for it.”
So, was she correct when she predicted that the house would be a money pit? They had a budget of around £100,000 (€117,000) but events conspired to ensure that it was exceeded. “In part, this was due to design decisions that we made and due to the current high price of materials such as steel, but the refurb was quite a bit more complicated than we had expected,” she says. They hadn’t anticipated the extent of the electrical rewiring and plumbing required, nor the remedial work needed on the roof and chimneys. “So, you do your budget and then you realise that it is a work of fiction,” she says ruefully.
But they have no regrets. “This for us is about creating a long-term home,” she says. “In time we want to grow lots of our own fruit and veg, continue to develop the Retreats by the Sea business, and hopefully bring people to the area, people who don’t even know where Castlerock is.”
Biggest win
“Experiencing the light in this house. We have all the elements right outside the window. There was a full moon the other night and I was just sitting here watching it and it was mesmerising. We have beautiful stars here and the light is changing constantly.”
Biggest mistake
“Not being present all the time. Some weeks we would leave for work on a Monday morning and come back on Friday to find that very little had been done. And very little had been done because we weren’t there. Don’t assume that people will merrily get along with the work when you’re not present.”
