US billionaire's €4.75m Kinsale home largely demolished to pave way for home and farm hub
Sprayfield House, Sandycove, Cork, is on 40 private acres with organic gardens, small woodland, and half a mile of sea frontage. Picture: Dan Linehan
A private animal sanctuary is promised for the grounds of a Georgian-era Kinsale house bought for €4.75m by a billionaire currently living on a boat.
But, his Munster Sprayfield House period property purchase in 2023, has just been largely demolished, pending its extensive reconstruction as a home and farm.
Discovering more extensive woes in old buildings when they are opened up is the stuff of TV makeover shows, and can to happen anyone, on any budget.
However, finding rising damp and wet rot at the scenically-set 200 year-old Georgian villa Sprayfield, outside the mouth of Kinsale harbour didn’t deter James Berwind from the Irish property market.
The super-wealthy family heir to a US fortune is continuing to splurge, with up to €20m currently spent locally on three €4m-€5m individual house purchases.
He’s now adding at least one more Sandycove dwelling after agents acting on his behalf knocked on doors seeking additional houses to buy, plus he’s buying a farm of over 30 acres by Ballinspittle and the Old Head of Kinsale to grow hay for his and for other animal rescues and sanctuaries.
The house which won Mr Berwind’s heart and prompted plans to put down roots in Kinsale is the 200-year-old former home of ex-UCC president Gerry Wrixon, put up for sale in 2023, and selling swiftly for very close to its €4.75m guide, one of Munster’s top house prices ever.
When it featured extensively in the
’s Property & Home pages and online in 2023 we said “ Kinsale home might be Munster's loveliest property package” and continued that the 310sq m “Georgian villa, on the coastal outskirts of Kinsale, is on 40 private acres with organic gardens, small woodland and half a mile of sea frontage, and comes with outbuildings, a tennis court, a wine cave, views as lovely at night as by day, stables and paddocks for ponies, horses and donkeys… and it is all beautiful, simple as.”
It wooed and won Mr Berwind, said to be fifth generation heir to the family Berwind Corporation, with legacy coal mining resources until the early 1900s, now diversified and said to have up to €3bn in property assets and investments.
Getting the builders in and getting unexpected bad news about works needed — as seems to be the case in coastal Cork — may be a drop in the proverbial ocean and seems not to have overly rocked Mr Berwind’s boat (his private yacht Scout is worth a reported €80m and is lived in much of the year by Mr Berwind, his husband Kevin Clark, and their dogs).
Planning permission for renovations and redevelopment on their first Irish land-based acquisition was sought by Mr Berwind via his Delaware US-registered Riocht Na nAinmhithe LLC — translated as Kingdom of the Animals — by Cork architect Louise Sliney, heading up a locally-based design and delivery team on what’s now a 390sq m future home.
While the planning for renovations attracted a number of local observations and as a heritage property (with later extensions) featured extensive conservation reports in a very detailed planning with masterplan outlines for farm building, garage and other changes and upgrades, it got the planning greenlight from Cork County Council.
A number of its interior and exterior features are mentioned in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage and the National Built Heritage Service, including windows, shutters, some timbers, plasterwork, fireplaces, internal arches and columns, and more.
A spokesperson for the new owners told the “the original Sprayfield House had been significantly renovated prior to coming into its current ownership, with the removal of much of its original features".
"When construction began, significant issues were identified including rot in the roof sections and rising damp throughout the property walls. Regrettably this has forced wider renovations than anticipated, but the intention is to restore the house to its original form."
He continued: “An engineers report recommended a full replacement of the roof structure, the full replacement of all interior walls, the removal of the existing chimney stacks, and the removal of some external walls, based on the rot and rising damp which was identified.”
After rebuilding it, the couple intend to call Kinsale ‘home’ in the long term and “have fallen in love with Kinsale and its people and have contributed to a number of philanthropic causes in the area, including support for Kinsale Youth Centre and Kinsale Art Festival,” said the spokesperson for the project.
Sprayfield’s 40 acres abuts the picturesque ruins of a medieval church and cemetery, Courtaparteen and the property’s owners are said to be “also actively working with Cork County Council on the preservation of Courtaparteen Church".
Meanwhile, considerable landscaping works currently on site include creating a ‘ha-ha’ or stepped ditch to help screen the revamped house from the publicly-accessible cliff walk from Sandycove, plus a new farm entrance by the current entrance whilst “a private animal sanctuary is envisioned for the lands around Sprayfield House, with a focus on the needs of horses and goats predominantly, filling a need for these animals on a long-term basis".
A very recent farmland purchase near Ballinspittle and the Old Head of Kinsale “is to be used to grow hay to support the growing needs of animal rescue centres and sanctuaries around Ireland, as well as the private sanctuary on lands around Sprayfield House,” the spokesperson confirmed adding the owners “have engaged with a number of Irish charities in this regard and intend to support their operations with this private sanctuary”.
