Farmhouse in literary landscape inspires author

CO CLARE: €425,000:A PERIOD farmhouse with views of Lough Derg and the Clare hills was bought for practical reasons but ended up becoming the inspiration for a historical biography.

Eddie and Madeleine Humphreys bought the four-bedroom farmhouse 15 years ago to be near his job at Shannon Airport but "this is such an inspiring place", says Madeleine, who wrote The Life and Times of Edward Martyn: An Aristocratic Bohemianhere.

“I had given up my job at the University of Limerick and was looking for something to do. I was pottering around south Galway and discovered Edward Martyn who was a founder of Irish literary theatre and the Palestrina Choir. There was a cultural renaissance in south Galway (which joins east Clare) at the turn of the 20th century,” she says citing people who lived nearby such as WB Yeats and Augusta Gregory.

“This is a literary landscape and east Clare is, after all, the home of traditional music. So I sat at a computer in the upstairs office and wrote the book,” says Humphreys who is now writing a book on another west of Ireland person: critic Mary Colum (wife of poet Padraic Colum).

The Humphreys completely revamped the interior of the 190sq m (2,045sq ft), four-bedroom house, which is for sale through Savills for €425,000.

On the ground floor of the house, which is just under five miles from Killaloe, is an open-plan kitchen and livingroom. The kitchen is in a comfortable country style, with clay tile floors, free-standing wooden units and Stanley oil range.

Three bedrooms are in the extension on the ground floor along with the bathroom.

Upstairs is an en suite main bedroom and the study. The couple also built a summer house in the 1.47 acres (0.6 hectares) of grounds, employing a violin maker to do the work because they felt that such a person would pay attention to detail. This glazed building has views of Lough Derg, across sloping lawns, just as the house does.

The beautiful stone barn across the gravelled courtyard from Ballylaghnan Farmhouse at Drehidbower Bridge was also carefully restored, and the couple scoured the local area to find old slate for the roof.

“I was going through a William Morris phase,” says Madeleine, “and only used stone and wood: there is nothing synthetic in my house.”

A change in family circumstance is the reason behind the sale: “ I really will be sad to leave,” says Madeleine. “It is a very easy house to live in.”

Ballylaghnan Farmhouse, Killaloe, Co Clare

Spacious four-bed farmhouse with views of Lough Derg on 1.47 acres includes a restored stone barn

Agent: Savills