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Smitten in stone in Waterford –the couple who went to extreme lengths to source the building blocks for their €1.3m lakeside home

Ash Lodge was built with similar sandstone as that used for St Patrick’s church in Faugheen

Ash Lodge, Ballyloughbeg, Co Waterford

The entrance hall with oak front door

The living room

The patio

One of the four bedrooms

The lounge and bar

An aerial view of the property

Ash Lodge was built with similar sandstone as that used for St Patrick’s church in Faugheen

Paul Kennedy

Ash Lodge, Ballyloughbeg, Co Waterford

Jim O'Brien

May 20 2022 12:00 PM

Ash Lodge, Ballyloughbeg, Co Waterford Asking price: €1.3m Agent: Palmer Auctioneers (051) 872061

Paul and Mary Kennedy admit they were stone mad when they built their family home in Ballyloughbeg, Co Waterford.

In fact, so determined were the Waterford couple to source a very unique type of stone for the new house they were building, they managed to get a quarry that had closed more than 50 years previously to reopen especially for their project.

“Mary and I always admired the stonework, on St Patrick’s church at Faugheen” Paul explains. Some local research revealed that the unusually coloured sandstone used to build St Patrick’s in 1879 had come from a local family owned quarry long closed.

Ash Lodge was built with similar sandstone as that used for St Patrick’s church in Faugheen

“So I approached the guy who owned the quarry and he agreed to open it when he realised there was enough stone in the deal to make it worth his while.”

The Kennedys had planning permission for a 4,413 sq ft house overlooking Belle Lake at Ballyloughbeg, 9km south of Waterford City. At that time, 2004/2005, they were living in a cottage (stone of course) on the 3ac site.

“We wanted the new building to be in keeping with the stonework on the outbuildings beside the cottage,” Paul explains.

“We also wanted to replicate the thickness of the walls on the cottage, so the new house has a layer of blocks, a layer of insulation, a second layer of blocks and six inches of stone. It all comes to 18 inches so the window boards are 1ft deep.

Paul Kennedy

A serial entrepreneur, Paul Kennedy has dabbled in the building and the pub trade. “In the early 1980s I shared a house with a bunch of lads and we were all out of work. So I said: ‘Look lads we’ll put together a plan’ and we started doing small building jobs, extensions and that type of stuff.

"We stayed at it for a number of years until the other guys moved on or emigrated. In 1997, along with my brother, I bought a pub and in 2000 we added a nightclub to it, building it with direct labour. We kept it going for a few years and sold it in 2003 before the smoking ban came in.”

It was after selling the pub that Paul took time out to project-manage the building of ‘Ash Lodge’, their new house. “Mary designed it and included all the modern features of the day, including underfloor heating.”

The entrance hall with oak front door

Among their other requirements were sash windows and plenty of wood. “I have a very good friend who is a carpenter and a carver and he made the doors, the skirting and architraves, as well as the stairs and the kitchen. All of it was handmade using Irish wood, either ash or oak,” Paul explains.

Externally, the house is maintenance free, “You can’t see any gutters on the outside, we ran them down inside the stone, along with the sewer pipes. There is nothing external except the stone, the windows and the granite sills.”

The Kennedys are now downsizing and moving to Dunmore East. “There is just the two of us and Ash Lodge is too big now.” Paul says.

The stone cottage was sold a number of years ago and the current house stands on 2.47ac of landscaped gardens.

These include a number of ponds, a border of mature trees and hedging with a gravel avenue meandering through. A granite terrace is laid down to rear and side of the house.

The lounge and bar

The oak front door opens to a double-height entrance hall that leads diagonally to a tiled bar and lounge area with French doors opening to a terrace. Immediately to the left inside the front door is an office or study with a walnut floor and plenty of storage space.

The next set of doors leads to the walnut-floored living room with an open fireplace, windows to the front and side and French doors leading to the terrace.

The living room

To the right of the entrance hall the dining room and the kitchen are accessed through individual doors and linked by an internal door while the kitchen shares the open-plan space with a sitting room. The dining room faces the back garden and, like the other reception rooms has walnut flooring.

The kitchen is fitted with oak units, a dual Aga (oil and electricity), a breakfast counter with a Belfast sink and walnut worktops. The sitting room off the kitchen has an open fireplace and French doors to the terrace.

The utility also has a Belfast sink, oak units, plenty of storage space and a half-door leading to the rear of the house. An en suite bedroom, the first of five in the house, is located on the ground floor.

One of the four bedrooms

Off the hallway is a guest WC and a cloakroom. An ash staircase leads to the first floor where part of a large landing overlooks the entrance hall as a mezzanine. The master bedroom is off the landing and comes with a walk-in wardrobe and a large en suite bathroom. Of the three remaining upstairs bedrooms one has en suite facilities and there’s a family bathroom.

There are granite window sills, solid ash doors and stairs, and uPVC, double-glazed sash windows. The geothermal underfloor heating is zoned and the house comes with a B2 BER energy rating.

There’s a central entertainment system, a central vacuum system and a security system with external cameras.

An aerial view of the property

To the side is a detached, two-storey, double garage insulated and finished to first fix level with potential as additional living accommodation.

Ash Lodge is on the private treaty market in a sale guided by Palmer Auctioneers, Waterford at €1.3m. And if you need some of that very special sandstone, today that quarry reopens on demand.

Smitten in stone in Waterford –the couple who went to extreme lengths to source the building blocks for their €1.3m lakeside home

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