The village of Piltown in Co Kilkenny is known as a “model town” due to its layout and link to the Bessborough estate, and is described as “most attractive” in its planning development plan by Kilkenny County Council. It has an interesting history in that it was the only place on the island of Ireland to witness a battle during the Wars of the Roses, when Thomas FitzGerald (on the side of the house of York) defeated the Butlers of Kilkenny.
A “tower” known as Sham’s Castle is a local landmark on the approach to the village from the western side. It was commissioned by a local man, who thought his son had gone missing during the Napoleonic wars. It was never completed though, as the son duly returned home while it was still being constructed.
Another landmark in the village is a house known today as Lissenfield that dates from 1905. It was constructed by local builder John Anthony, who was responsible for a number of important buildings in the locality, including Anthony’s Inn, the old coaching inn and museum where horse-drawn carriages used to stop on their way from Clonmel to Waterford.
Having a prominent site in the town, Lissenfield was originally purchased by the family of the current owners from the Anthony family in the 1950s, who operated a doctor’s surgery in the house in the part that was originally a grocery shop. Subsequently, the current owners, also in the medical profession, operated a surgery here until they moved the clinic to a public building.
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The front facade of the house still retains its wooden front from its time as a grocery shop more than a century ago, and its owners undertook total renovation of the house when they moved in during 1986. “Then it was full of carpets and beauty board and we stripped everything back: the tiles, the stairs, we had the doors and architraves dipped as well as the ebony door knobs that had been painted over,” say the owners, who are downsizing due to an empty nest.
In addition, fireplaces were stripped of paint and the kitchen, which was “a tiny dark space on the north side”, was pushed out with the addition of a breakfast room. Its dark aspect was addressed by the installation of three windows, double doors and a large skylight.
An extension to the drawing room was also added in place of a “1970s glass house” while matching sash windows were installed as was panelling to match the original features of the protected structure.
Extending to a generous 277sq m (2,981sq ft), the property has six reception rooms and an extended kitchen in addition to two garden rooms on the private grounds that lie behind electric gates.
The family use one of the reception rooms as an art room, and the pitch pine shop units here (and in the adjacent den) have been restored, allowing the history of the place to take centre stage.
Upstairs are five bedrooms, with a particularly generous principal bedroom that has a dressing room and en suite.
Despite the property being on a prominent village site, its gardens are private. “It feels you are miles from civilisation,” say the owners, who gave the grounds a total overhaul about 15 years ago. After entering the property through electric gates, where there are two car spaces, steps lead up to the gardens, which are set over two levels. With patios to catch the path of the sun, a garden feature based on the one in Lismore Castle is used against a wall, whereby water — recycled underground — ebbs and flows over a limestone slab.
This most interesting property is 15km from Waterford city and 12km to the M9 for Dublin and is also within easy reach of the greenway, blueway, mountains and coast.
Lissenfield is in great condition and a credit to its owners, who have restored the property to its former glory. Their Ber-exempt home is now on the market through Remax, seeking €695,000.
