It’s the home of an earl, who is a descendant of Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne. Poet Ted Hughes credited it with reigniting his creativity, after his wife Sylvia Plath’s death. And now Doon House in Cashel, Connemara, is throwing its doors open as a holiday let.
The early 1800s house, which overlooks a sheltered bay of the Atlantic Ocean, is owned by Robert Jocelyn, the 10th Earl of Roden, and his wife, writer Ann Henning Jocelyn.
Owners of rambling old houses will know the financial challenge in trying to preserve such buildings. Ann says they spent their lives building up the place and enhancing it, with a view to passing it on to their son Shane, who works in London.
“There are so many different types of demands with the grounds. We have 60 acres that need to be looked after, and then there’s the house,” she says.
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Doon House can accommodate up to 10 guests in five bedrooms and has four reception rooms, a conservatory and a separate reading and games room.
“We very much would like it to continue into the next generation, and the only way we could make it feasible for the house to stay in family ownership was to make it pay for itself somehow,” she says.
Some friends in a similar predicament became bed and breakfast hosts, but she says that would be very demanding work.
“We know how they may have to serve dinner, and then be up at 6 o’clock serving breakfast, because some guest is catching an early flight.”
Instead, they opted to let the house on a self-catering basis, while giving guests the option of availing of independent catering if required. When the house is occupied with guests, the couple will move into an apartment in a separate wing that faces away from the main house, allowing them to continue their work as writers. Ann is an author and playwright, and has translated two Nobel Laureates – Kazuo Ishiguro and Jon Fosse – while Robert’s books focus on historical biography.
The couple previously dipped their toes into the hospitality industry when they began renting two cottages on the estate many years ago. “We have had guests coming for the past 25 years, and it’s been such a pleasure to welcome people here,” she says. Bringing people into their home is a different matter though, and they have spent the past year preparing for that.
“There were things that we had to think about. For example, when you let it at that level, you have to make sure that bedrooms and bathrooms are absolutely up to contemporary standards. And we also took this opportunity to have the house renovated, to have it redecorated. We replaced fitted carpets in the bedrooms with solid oak floors, which is more practical and more attractive. And all the elaborate curtain arrangements had to be taken down and dry cleaned.”
But an even bigger challenge lay in removing their personal belongings. “That was quite a difficult thing to do,” Ann concedes.
Originally from Sweden, she arrived in Cashel for five weeks in 1982 when her then friend, Robert Jocelyn, offered the house to her while she was finishing her first book. He was based in London at that time. “And I’m still here. I never left,” she says. Looking back now, she thinks he sent her over to see if they could have a future together in Galway. Three years later, the couple were married and settled in Doonreagan.
Robert bought the Doonreagan estate in the late 1960s and had always dreamed of moving there permanently. Tollymore Park in Co Down was formerly the seat of the Earls of Roden, and was sold by Robert’s grandfather to the ministry of agriculture during the second World War.
“So Robert had the view that he wanted to create a replacement for Tollymore with equally beautiful surroundings, and offering a similar lifestyle, but without being a millstone around his neck, and being of a size that was manageable for a family to live in,” she says.
After his parents died, the family collection of furniture, art and heirlooms from Tollymore ended up in Doon House. “The family collection goes back to the 16th century and much of the furniture is 18th century,” she says.
Keeping such valuable art in a holiday let was out of the question, while removing the paintings would leave bare walls – but modern technology offered a solution. “We copied all the pictures digitally on to canvas and put them in the original frames. And the copies are so good, it would take an expert on fine art to know that they are not the originals – they have been sent away into safe storage. So, guests can enjoy the pleasure of having high-quality art on the walls without an issue of security.”
They also removed the more fragile pieces of furniture, antique bone china and crystal glasses, so guests need not worry about snapping the stem off a priceless wine glass. “We know from letting the cottages that things need to be replaceable, and you can’t expect guests to use things that can’t be put in the dishwasher,” she says.
The Cashel area has been frequented by many famous faces over the years. Marconi sent his agent to Doon House to explore the possibility of conducting his work from there, when he was considering setting up the first wireless connection to the United States. “There is still the telegram from him setting up the meeting,” she says.
The actors Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom had a cottage nearby in the 1960s, and he asked to use the telephone one day to confirm his nomination for an Academy Award for In the Heat of the Night, which he subsequently won.
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A few decades later, the Jocelyns narrowly avoided sparking an international incident when Ted Kennedy was staying next door at Cashel House Hotel. “We had a fox killing all our lambs so my husband went out with a rifle at night to try and get this fox,” she explains. “And he was stopped by the postman, who warned him that the garden of Cashel House was full of security men for Ted Kennedy and they might not be best pleased to see a man creeping around with a rifle. So, the fox survived for another day.”
The estate is a wildlife haven, and reviews left by guests at the cottages mention the joy of roaming through the extensive grounds.
“I remember one of our guests was staying with three children, around eight, 10, and 12 years old, and she said it was the first time in their lives that they’d been able to run free without any constraints. I think that’s the wonderful thing for families coming here, that they can just feel totally safe and have all the benefits of nature.”
People of all ages will enjoy the naturally occurring sea pool on days when the sea is too cold or rough to brave. And the sauna in the kelp house will provide a welcome injection of heat before or after the plunge. She says the estate could also be of interest to people scouting for film and television locations, and the couple have already received a query from one film company.
Fans of history and genealogy will be interested in the 15-foot family tree on an upstairs wall, which starts in 1200, and traces the link between the Jocelyn and Boleyn families. The Ted Hughes connection emerged only about 20 years ago, when his letters were published and it was revealed that some of them had been written during his stay at Doon House.
“He writes to Aurelia Plath, Sylvia’s mother, to tell her about the view from the windows, and the daffodils that come out here in spring. So that became quite a major discovery for the literary world. We’ve had about a dozen professors of English visiting since then, and we’ve had three literary conferences on Ted Hughes’s time here.”
Ann’s play, Doonreagan, about Hughes’s stay at the house with his new partner, Assia Wevill, was shown in London in 2013 and toured Ireland afterwards.
Now she has written the screenplay and is in talks about turning it into a film. She has the perfect film location in mind if that comes to pass.
Doon House is available to let at a discounted price of €3,200/week on bookings made before the end of April. doonreagan.com
