Blarney cottage renovated into modern four‑bed home with extensive gardens

Aisling Murphy and Richie Ryan are leaving their renovated Blarney home, Barr na Sráide, after 17 years to move to Ardmore on the coast.

The couple bought the 1910 “two up, two down” cottage on 0.59 acre and commissioned Kerry‑based architect Tom Downes to transform it into a B‑rated four‑bedroom, four‑bathroom house.

Downes’ design flipped the layout, placing the bedrooms on the lower level for better sleep light and creating a living room with full‑length glass windows that overlook the surrounding fields and cows.

Key interior features include an open‑plan kitchen, dining and living area with Karnkean flooring, a Waterford Stanley range oven, and a balcony that catches the sunrise. The living‑room walls are papered in a Senzo Spot design inspired by giraffe markings.

The extensive gardens comprise several “outdoor rooms”: an Irish wild‑flower garden with a pond and David Austin roses, a fruit garden with berries and orchard trees, a polytunnel with raised beds, and a cut‑flower garden featuring hydrangeas, sunflowers and peonies. A raised decking area houses a Pratic Nomo pergola with a motorised retractable roof, power sockets and outdoor cooking facilities.

Murphy, a RHS‑certified horticulturist, and Ryan, an avid bird‑watcher, also keep heritage hens for fertilising the grass and supplying eggs.

Source: Irish Examiner. Photo: Ron Lach / Pexels.