Refurb nears completion after over 130 years

What has to be the longest renovation project in the country is nearing completion - over 130 years after work first started.

Puxley Mansion is a spectacular ruin just outside the seafaring town of Castletownbere. It's being turned into a €60 million five-star hotel resort which will open under the name of Capella Dunboy Castle next spring.

It is being billed as the largest renovation project in Ireland and the UK by the developer, who says that it exceeds the restoration of both Powerscourt and Kinnitty Castle in terms of scale and cost.

Around €34 million is being spent on renovation of the mansion alone and some of the work being undertaken on site is finishing work first started in the 1870s but never completed.

Up to 50 specialist stone masons are working on the site at any one time and four generations of lead roof craftsmen.

The mansion was built in 1829 by the Puxley family whose most famous son was the notorious "Copper John" Puxley who ran the nearby copper mines and was immortalised by Daphne Du Maurier in her book Hungry Hill.

In the 1870s Henry Lavallin Puxley undertook a major extension and remodelling of the pre-existing buildings into a Scottish baronial-style mansion.

The renovation of his family pile caused no end of heartache for Puxley. He was pursued through the courts by his builder for payment and was forced to sell off the family mines to pay the bill.

In any case, Henry lost interest in the house when his wife died giving birth to their third child. The heartbroken Henry attended her funeral in the nearby village of Allihies and never returned home, fleeing to England. Successive members of the Puxley family didn't have the funds to complete his ambitious renovation plans. The story goes that when the house was torched by the IRA during the War of Independence scaffolding was still standing in the great hall.

This 75ft high atrium hall with vaulted ceiling, galleries on the first and second floor and columns of Cork and Galway marble is to form the main entrance to the new hotel.

Bohan Property Consultants is handling the sale of 72 ocean-facing suites at the hotel. They range in size from 42-73sq m (452-786sq ft) and have prices starting at €425,000. The suites are connected to the main hotel by a glazed bridge.

Dunboy Castle will be run by the Capella group and will have all the luxury touches and flourishes expected of a swish country resort - spa, pool, fine dining and oodles of wild woodlands to lose yourself in. The developer, Dublin-based accountants Michael Humphreys and Adrian Dunne, are offering to cover all stamp duty and fit-out costs as well as some legal fees.

The suites come with a guaranteed leaseback payment of €18,500 per annum and capital allowances of 80 per cent.