On the 25th June 1953, my Father and mother married and set up home in Dundrum Co Dublin. My Father originally from Co Louth had a Butcher shop in Ranelagh, while my mother had moved from rural Galway to work and live in Dublin. Imagine my mothers surprise when in 1955 my father announced he had bought Tinode House and farm in West Wicklow and this was to be their new home! So they moved from the leafy suburb of south Dublin to a remote ramshackle estate with two infant daughters, my sister Mary and myself.

The house was built in 1860 for The Right Honourable William Henry Ford Coogan and was burnt to the ground during the civil war in 1922 and what remained were servant quarters, stable yard and coach houses. This is where I grew up with my five siblings. When not working on the farm we played in the burnt out remains of the old building usually looking for treasure which we never found!

The house was surrounded by beautiful specimen trees and multicoloured Rhododendrons where we spent many hours making dens and climbing trees. It was here I developed a fascination with nature and with my mother’s encouragement started gardening at a very young age. Our farm was mainly sheep and cattle and we were all expected to help. One of my treasured memories is going out very early in the morning with
my mother to check the ewes during lambing.

My father always dreamt of restoring Tinode House to its former glory and this he commenced in the late 70’s and they eventually moved from the Old House into the now restored Main House in 1981. Sadly the house was sold in 2010.

THE STEWARDS HOUSE

This building is located in the farmyard of Tinode House and as its name suggests it was the steward’s or farm manager’s house. In 1996 this was in a dilapidated state as was were the beautiful old cut stone farm buildings. At this stage in my life I was married with three adult children and I was a full time sheep farmer. We made the decision to restore this beautiful old building and live there. A few years later I discovered that the house was actually designed by George Coppinger Ashlin a well
known architect who trained under Edward Welby Pugin, son of Augustus Pugin. He was mainly known for his work on churches such as Queenstown cathedral in Cobh Co Cork and many others, my favourite is the beautiful Adelaide Memorial Church in Myshall Co Carlow.

In 2003 I retired from farming and decided to start a small nursery selling herbaceous plants and began to develop the garden. Work on the stewards house continued and in 2006 architect Michael Kelly came on board to design a small light filled contemporary extension. In the following years all of the old farm buildings were restored with meticulous design by Michael Kelly, his assistants and builder Radoslaw Kazmiersk and his team. One of which and the first, The Cowhouse earned the prestigious title of ‘BEST HOUSE’ in 2014 at the Architecture Ireland Awards -RIAI.