The Gate Lodge at Coolmore

In smaller homes, utilities require clever stowage, and so it is that you unknowingly pass the well concealed laundry facility when you step through the entrance lobby and enter the living room.

Under-floor heating guarantees wall to wall warmth.

A high stool dining bar informally separates the snug seating area, complete with wood burning stove, from the compact oak kitchen. The double bedroom is as sumptuous as it is simple. A wall of convenient wardrobe space spans the short lobby leading to the pearly white shower room.

Dining arrangements include an expansive rear patio along the western flank which is easily accessed from the kitchen – Barbecue Shangri-La.

The Gate Lodge is situated at the start of a tree lined avenue that introduces the Coolmore Estate. The immediate garden is lawned and defined by low box hedges. Internal roadways on the estate are mostly roller skate smooth asphalt, but there are some 4kms of beautifully brick-paved walks which are ideal for jogging and cycling.

Otters, badgers, Irish hares and red squirrels, foxes, river birds are among the native wildlife to be spotted along the tranquil valley. Fishing rights extend to a mile of the Nore, single bank, with eight pools noted for salmon, though these are subject to licensing requirements and by arrangement.

Elsewhere you will pass a Stonehenge folly of more recent construction, adjacent to the brick paved heli-pad of the same era.

The main house has a magnificent 3 acre walled garden which the gardener may give you a tour of. There is also an Astroturf tennis court which is available by arrangement.

The Lodge has a Weber barbecue, smart TV, excellent mobile coverage, and internet. By arrangement there is use of the tennis court and a mile of fishing rights.

Note that there is a separate Cottage on the demesne that sleeps four, and is listed elsewhere on this Unique Irish Homes website.

• Mount Juliet perfect fairways
• Potter around the Nicholas Mosse pottery
• Wander around Kilfane gardens and waterfall
• Climb up Mount Leinster
• Dine a la Campagne
• Take a tour around Smithwicks brewery
• Go down a cave at Dunmore
• Go below on a famine ship
• Trace your Kilkenny roots
• The Centre for Craft and Design

• Remember The Whitehouse architect
• Paddle past Coolmore
• Get your heart galloping at Gowran park
• Pop into the Left Bank for a pint
• Cycle along the Nore
• Go gardening at Woodstock

Festivals

• August – Kilkenny Arts Festival
• April /May – Kilkenny Rhythm and Roots Festival
• October – Savour Kilkenny Festival of Food
• June – Cat Laughs Comedy Festival
• August – Graignamanagh Town of Books Festival

The Gate Lodge was original constructed in 1850 and served as a home to the gatekeeper and his wife who was the cook in the main house

Thomastown at 5km upstream is the nearest town to Coolmore. There are two large supermarkets, restaurants, coffee shops, pubs and a selection of craft shops to browse.

At one stage there were 12 water-powered mills, for grain and cloth, working locally. Several mills can still be seen upstream from the bridge in Thomastown.

A replica famine ship, the Dunbrody, is now berthed on the quay in New Ross and offers visitors an insight into life as a passenger during the 19th century when emigration to America was at its peek.

Dysart Castle, clearly visible around the estate, was the birth place of George Berkeley. George, the eponymous philosopher of Berkeley University California, was active in the first half of the 18th century.

The medieval city of Kilkenny – 25km distant – is often referred to as the Marble City due to its unique black marble mining. It is the smallest city in Ireland.

Work on Kilkenny Castle was begun in 1204 and took 9 years to complete. The Castle became the seat to the Butler family, a very powerful dynasty who lived there until 1935.
Lady Margaret Butler who was born there, was the grandmother of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII of England.

The highest air temperature ever recorded in Ireland was 33.3 °C (91.9 °F), at Kilkenny Castle on 26 June 1887.

St Canice’s Cathedral with its Round Tower were founded in the 6th century – Cill Channigh (pr. Kil-kenny) is the Gaelic for the Church of Canice. The Round Tower – one of only two that people can climb in Ireland – is the city’s oldest building, with excellent views for those brave enough to reach the top.

The extensive ruins of Jerpoint Abbey – 6km from the house – is another ecclesiastical site notable for its stone carvings. Built in 1180, it survived till Henry the VIII got hold of it during the period of the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1500’s.

It was from a farm here in New Ross that President John F. Kennedy’s great-grandfather emigrated to America in 1848 on just such a ship.