TV chef Keith Floyd sold his Irish home yesterday before auction for a sum believed to be in the region of £300,000. The extended two storey house outside Kinsale, Co Cork, was bought in trust by a solicitor for a client.
The ebullient presenter of TV cookery programmes bought what was a tumbledown cottage on land beside the Kinsale-Cork road about 10 years ago.
Since then he has extended and renovated the building.
The accommodation includes two bedrooms, two reception rooms, a kitchen, a staff flat, separate guest quarters, and a boat-house facing on to the river that runs behind the property.
Mr Floyd, who last year sold his Devon restaurant business when one of his companies was declared bankrupt, was not in Kinsale yesterday. He left the area two weeks ago for engagements in Scandinavia.
Friends said he did not appear to have any immediate plans for the future and was not looking for another premises around Kinsale, where house prices are among the highest in the country.
He is been a very visible member of the local community in the seaside town where he was an active member of the local rugby club and supported many of the area's famous pubs and gourmet restaurants.