ROSMUC, CO. GALWAY
Catch a Connemara fishing estate
Orna Mulcahy went to see Inverbeg, a fishing estate in Connemara which is expected to sell for in excess of £750,000. The estate was developed by the Guinness family in the 19th century.
One of the oldest fishing estates in Connemara, Inverbeg, near Rosmuc, Co Galway, is for sale publicly for the first time since it was developed by the Guinness family in the mid-19th century.
The 68-acre estate has four houses, several trout lakes and shooting rights over 9,600 acres. The property has a salmon hatchery, which is fully operational.
John Hamilton of Jackson-Stops McCabe is seeking offers in excess of £750,000 for the estate.
Hidden away in the wild Connemara landscape, Inverbeg is almost impossible to find without precise directions. Thirty-eight miles from Galway city, 19 miles from Oughterard and close to Maam Cross, an unmarked lane off the Carna/Rosmuc road leads to a discreet entrance.
Inside the gates, a three-bedroom caretaker's cottage is surrounded by its own gardens. Further along the drive, a fork takes you towards the extensive kitchen gardens, and, beyond these, to a large five-bedroom guesthouse that overlooks Invernagleragh Lake.
The main driveway winds on through woodland and peters out in a clearing overlooking the lake. The principal house, Inver Lodge, is on an island in the lake and can only be reached via a 120-foot pontoon.
The two-storey house is surrounded by well-kept lawns ringed by dense azeleas and hydrangeas, whose bright pinky hues are echoed in the water lilies that grow in a pond nearby.
Build in 1840, Inver Lodge has a comfortable club-like feel - the kind of atmosphere that takes decades of leisurely living to create. The informal entrance is through a conservatory where fishing rods and nets are lined up in immaculate order and log books stand by to record the day's catch.
Wood panelled walls in the hall and adjoining study give way to bright reception rooms - a sittingroom with an open fireplace, diningroom and morning room. There is also a breakfastroom and an old-fashioned kitchen. Off the kitchen, there is a pantry, utility room, linen room and staff bedroom.
An unusual winding staircase leads to the upper floor, where the six bedrooms are all pleasant, airy rooms with views of the lake and beyond to the 12 Pins. Stuffed fish adorn the walls of the charming bathroom.
Inverbeg will almost certainly be sold to a continental, according to John Lanigan-O'Keeffe, the Jackson-Stops representative in Connemara. "Irish buyers don't appreciate the total seclusion that you have here, whereas an Italian or a French industrialist will see this as somewhere to get away from it all."
Irish Times, 22/5/1997