The Irish Manor In Photos (part 1)

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Words by Dalene Heck / Photos by Pete Heck

Welcome to your tour of… The Manor!

This post could also easily be called Housesitting 301 – The Big Benefits.  And it would go well beyond the usual verbage of it being an inexpensive way to travel.

Our foray into housesitting has gratefully led us here – to an expansive manor on 65 acres in rural Ireland. Parts of the estate date back to the 10th century, when it existed only as a lookout tower for the villagers.  There have been many additions since then, with most of it (and the interior styling) done in the 18th century.

The east-facing front of the Manor.

View from the front door

From the backyard at dusk

The outside view of the ballroom

The garden on the north-west corner of the Manor, where we will be doing lots of work!  A dovecote is beyond the doorway.

A dovecote was used to raise pigeons to be eaten.  It now stores tools for the garden.

The cute pink door to our cottage, attached on the south side of the Manor.

I could fill a whole other post with pictures of all the charming doors and interesting corners.

This used to be a kitchen (you can see where the roof was attached and the remains of a stove), but is now a beautiful courtyard.

There are so many other interesting features across the property.  Here are cherry blossoms along the path to the orchard.

The gate to the orchard.

Old servants quarters, which are now used for beehives.

A river runs through the property, which locals will use for fishing.

Across the river is the “Island Wood”, and it has a structure once used as a tea house.  It’s kinda spooky!

And there’s even a graveyard.  Spookier, still!

Near the graveyard is a Holy Well, maintained and cared for by the locals.

Ancient tools found around the property.

The four hens we are taking care of.  Pete is quite excited every morning to see how many eggs there are – like they are Christmas presents!

Olly, our sweet, four-legged furbaby for two months!  One downside of traveling is that we really miss having pets in our life, so Olly is getting lots of love.

Next week we will show you images from inside the Manor and our cottage!

Have we convinced you of the merits of housesitting yet?  Check out our posts Housesitting 101 on how to get started.

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62 Comments

    1. Si, claro! Pero, hay arbols de palma en Dublin! No se porque? (An experiment gone wrong, I think).

      It is pretty different, but what they both have in common is how GREEN everything is! But, the beer is much better here. 🙂

    1. It is storybook-like, especially for these humbled North Americans who grew up around buildings that were rarely over 100 years old!

  1. Whoa! You two have scored a winner! How do you ever get anything done?? I’d be out and about all day just soaking up the surrounds and taking photos!

    I thought the huge house that Jeremy and I are housesitting in Redmond, Oregon was impressive, but you have us beat by an Irish country mile!

    Enjoy!

    1. Impressive old manor + brand new camera = a LOT of pictures being taken, don’t worry about that! The last two days we’ve been housebound because of rain, but that’s okay. Gives our batteries a rest. 🙂

  2. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it……there would be vines covering some part of that manor. It is awesome & can’t wait to see the inside & also your cottage. Loved the pink door, but man I sure wouldn’t want to have been the person who cleaned out the dovecote.

    1. Oh yes, plenty of vines! Haha, yeah, I wouldn’t have wanted to be that person too! There actually must have been someone who stayed right in there because in the other corner there is a little spot for a stove.

  3. OMG that place is like a dream come true. Do you feel like the luckiest people in the world? Brian and I are deadset on housesitting after reading all of your posts on it. Housesitting is going to be an important part of our travels. Amazing!

    1. We do feel pretty fortunate. And it is quite an experience already – these small city folk becoming somewhat farmers! But, it’s been good so far!

  4. Wow!! I can’t wait to see inside. This is so amazing and fairy tale like. It instantly reminds me of reading the secret garden. What an amazing experience! This is exactly what I’d like to believe a manor in Ireland would be like 😀

    1. It’s funny, we kind of came into this blind – well, we had seen pictures, but with any housesitting gig, you don’t REALLY know what it’s gonna be like until you get here. There are definitely some downfalls to living in a place so old, but overall, it’s pretty cool!

  5. The Manor looks gorgeous. I love the tea house picture. I’m making a note to myself that I definitely have to try house sitting.

    1. Every mansion needs a butler! And there are some ugly spiders and beetles that Pete could use some help with clearing out of my way.. 🙂

  6. So awesome!!!!! I want to be you guys!!
    Are you going to start dressing up in old fashioned clothes? that would be at least fun to do for some cool photographs of you around the property! haha 🙂

  7. Wow looks like you are living in an historical tourist attraction! You can explore that before tackling the rest of the area 😀

    1. It is a little spooky, I agree with you there. I’m not sure if Olly would be much help (he’s a bit of a meathead), but he barks really loud at least… 🙂

  8. Ooooo pretty pictures. My favorite is the white gate.
    I like the … SYMMETRY of it. ^_^

      1. Hard to say for sure, it takes a lot of effort to add photos (we’re talking like 3 whole minutes!).

        On an unrelated note, my PayPal balance is a little low… and is linked to the e-mailed I used in this comment…

        I know you’ll make the right decision.

        ^___^

  9. Wow! It looks like something you’d only see in a movie, or maybe a storybook. So cool that you guys are actually calling it “home” for a while!

  10. What a fantastic house! Looks like a lot of work but I can’t wait to see the inside. Love the garden and the dog! 🙂

  11. Wow, looks amazing! I don’t think I’ve ever been, let alone stayed, anywhere that looks like that – so cool. Definitely great promotion for housesitting – we’re going to be all over that.

  12. Pingback: JJ002: Using House Sitting to Stretch Your Travel Budget

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