Tour $7,400,000 Irish Estate in Kilkenny Ireland

Kilmurry House, Thomastown, County Kilkenny

Kilmurry House, the birthplace of Irish watercolorist Mildred Anne Butler, is quite simply one of the finest country manors in all of Ireland. The Georgian house, executed in timeless Palladian style, was Butler's lifelong home: Its former orangery was her studio; its walled gardens, lake, and woodland were the setting for many of her finest en plein air pastoral and wildlife paintings. Named to the Royal Academy in 1893, Butler painted to international acclaim for more than 30 years. The National Gallery of Ireland purchased seven of her watercolors for its permanent collection. A watercolor of a pair of rooks was commissioned for the Library in Queen Mary's Dolls' House. Her legacy abides in Kilmurry House., where some of her Kilmurry landscapes hang in the home's art gallery, painted from a nearby window facing the picturesque grounds.

The great house itself, set within a private demesne in excess of 90 acres in Thomastown, County Kilkenny, dates from 1690. Butler's father, Captain Henry Butler, grandson of the 11th Viscount Mountgarret, purchased Kilmurry House in the late 1800s, and it remained in the Butler family until 1981. The latest restoration by the current owners extended the home to 17,861 square feet with eleven bedrooms and eight bathrooms while retaining the order and symmetry of the original Georgian design.

THE MANOR HOUSE Kilmurry House is an elegant five-bay, three-story limestone structure above a garden-level villa.

What is most notable about the house is the amount of natural light, rare in historic homes. Here, glass doors and double-height windows bring in the light and the views. The reception rooms are grandly proportioned and embellished with original details, such as ornately carved fireplace mantles and crown moldings.