luxury house for sale Limerick, Ireland

Winterwood is an exceptional contemporary luxury residence set on approximately 2.95 acres, commanding panoramic views across Lough Derg while offering complete privacy and an extraordinary collection of bespoke lifestyle features rarely found within a single home. Extending to approximately 3,606 sq.ft., the property was originally constructed in 2003 and comprehensively renovated in 2022 to an exceptional standard. Positioned on a mature, fully enclosed southwest-facing site, Winterwood enjoys uninterrupted lake views, beautifully landscaped gardens, and extensive decking designed to maximise sunlight and outdoor living. The accommodation is spacious, versatile, and thoughtfully designed for modern family living, entertaining, and creative pursuits. A striking six-metre-high atrium-style entrance hall creates an immediate sense of arrival. The principal reception spaces flow effortlessly, with the kitchen, dining, and living areas seamlessly connected. At the heart of the home is the spectacular living room, featuring a dramatic five-metre pitched floor-to-ceiling glazed wall framing uninterrupted lake views. A solid fuel stove adds warmth and atmosphere, while double doors open onto a semi-enclosed terrace. The kitchen is beautifully finished with herringbone tiled flooring, quartz worktops, mirrored splashbacks, bespoke cabinetry with walnut inlay, a bay window seating nook, and a large mixed quartz and walnut island with integrated Neff appliances. Thoughtfully elevated above the adjoining dining area, both spaces fully capture the panoramic views. The adjoining wet bar, complete with guest WC access, makes entertaining effortless. The principal suite is a luxurious private retreat featuring a large picture window, elegant electric flame-effect fireplace, beautifully appointed ensuite with freestanding bath, and walk-in wardrobe. A separate bespoke dressing room offers floor-to-ceiling custom-fitted wardrobes and a dedicated preparation area. Double doors open directly onto a private terrace with a sunken jacuzzi, offering an uninterrupted view of the lake. A second ground-floor bedroom also benefits from its own ensuite bathroom. Upstairs, a striking triangular glazed picture window floods the upper floor with natural light while overlooking the living room and lake beyond. Two further bedrooms, both with fitted wardrobes and large pitched windows, enjoy beautiful garden and water views, while a spacious storage room and large family bathroom complete the accommodation. A standout feature is the unique outdoor entertainment and music recording Den, styled as a traditional Irish pub, complete with fitted bar, stage area, wood-burning stove, and multiple seating areas. An exceptional and exciting entertainment space. The grounds enjoy a full 360-degree aspect and are complemented by extensive decking, mature beech hedging, established trees, colourful planting, a substantial 13m x 6m warehouse/hangar, and the rare addition of a private helicopter pad. Electric gates, CCTV, alarm system, fibre broadband, and EV charging further enhance this exceptional home. Offering a rare combination of architectural design, privacy, modern luxury, and lifestyle amenities, Winterwood represents a truly distinctive lakeside residence in one of County Tipperary’s most scenic locations.

The Old Rectory sits at the heart of a thriving, cultivated demesne situated on 28 acres. The beautifully proportioned classical house addresses a lawn surrounded by trees. It is not quite what it seems. The façade projects the modest comfort and good taste appropriate for a country rectory, but inside, it is a house fit for a bishop. Radiating from the house are the wing, basement, outbuildings, yards, walled garden and demesne; all supported a life lived on a magnificent scale. The Old Rectory was built in 1819 for Charles Warburton, the son of a Protestant bishop, and the grandson of a blind Catholic harpist. The architect is unrecorded, but Warburton more than likely engaged James Pain, the talented English architect who had recently moved to Ireland to work with John Nash, to design his new house. Other rectories with similar elevations would have contained two or maybe three rooms on the ground floor, four modest-sized bedrooms and a basement for the servants. That the Old Rectory was far grander is immediately apparent on entry into the hall, where the gently calibrated stair rises from under a broad elliptical arch supported by gilded Corinthian columns. The large reception rooms – morning room, drawing room, dining room – each with long shuttered windows, panelled doors and elegant ceiling plasterwork – interconnect, bringing a wonderful sense of spaciousness to the house. There was also a library. Upstairs there were three large bedrooms each with a dressing room. Such a house was run by servants who had their own stair and lived and worked in the wing and the vast basement. The present owner, who grew up in the house, has restored and fully serviced the house without sacrificing its historic integrity. The house has been modernized but has escaped modernism. Measures taken to provide contemporary services are discreet. Warm air heats the house through ducts concealed in the attic and basement. The house has been rewired. Fibre-optic cable for highspeed broadband has been installed, and there is WIFI coverage to all the buildings on the estate. Running parallel to the house is a tunnel with an abrupt end. A subterranean mystery. Perhaps a place to retreat to; a reminder of early nineteenth-century Ireland when there was unrest in the countryside and when, in 1807, the bishop, Warburton’s father, was shot at in Limerick. The steel-plated ground-floor shutters and the bars that secure them are a witness to those troubled times. The tremendous repair work carried out over thirty years extends to the outbuildings, yards and gardens. The impression of care is palpable when you enter the red-painted gates of the avenue: the rose under the young trees, the bee hives towards the house. This love extends to the stables where large-scale renovation ensures a structurally stable roof composed of old and new timbers, a rebuilt stair and invisible steel beams for a building that retains its rough walls and dusty atmosphere: a building saved for the future. The life that is palpable in this house extends to the gardens. In the orchard traditional apple tree scions have been grafted onto existing rootstocks and Shropshire sheep graze the grass. The woods have been extended with plantings of hazel, beech, birch, and saplings inoculated with truffles planted ten years ago. The organic-certified field to the north of the house is grazed by Droimeann cattle, a native Irish breed. Barn owls and many other birds thrive in this diverse landscape. In a house where gold gilds the Corinthian columns while even after a thorough overhaul the stable retains the depredations of age, it is clear that the place has been loved for what it is. This is unusual and precious. The Old Rectory and the land that surrounds it waits for the next chapter in its existence, confident that it has the strength to remain old in the modern world. Text by Dr. Judith Hill