Irish mansion with flush ‘thrones’ and a spoon-playing squire

Press, 11 July 1989, Page 23

Irish mansion with flush ‘thrones’ and a spoon-playing squire

By

SUSAN KUROSAWA

Unexpected attractions for guests at historic Temple House, Ballymote, in Ireland’s County Sligo are a quirky thunderbox of a Victorian toilet and a spoon-playing country squire. These unique inclusions are slowly unfolded during the course of one’s stay, and well after you’ve been installed in a sumptuously large guestroom furnished in endearingly idiosyncratic style.

Run by Sandy and Deb Perceval, Temple House is a grand Georgian pile where you can stay overnight for a surprisingly low 22 Irish pounds per person, including the sort of breakfast that would stall a semi-trailer driver. There are only half-a-dozen guestrooms, all deliciously different and with lots of homely touches such as bookshelves lined with yellowing volumes (mostly prim Jane Austen and tomes on nmning one’s country estate) and little hand-written notes politely suggesting you be careful with the curtains because, after all, they are 125 years old. In an adjoining bathroom stands that splendid thunderbox looking very much like a grand throne. Pull the flush lever and there will be quite a delay before the water roars. This wait is deliberate — in Victorian times, genteel ladies would straighten their skirts after a demure twinkle and swish well away before that rotten flush could affend their sensitive ears. For an extra 14 Irish pounds per person, Temple House puts on. dinner. Deb Perceval is an accomplished cook and most of the produce she uses is organically grown on the Temple House estate. Sit at a fiercely polished dining table of cricket pitch proportions and be served hearty soup, roast lamb and spanking fresh vegetables, and a proper pud. Squire Sandy — mud on his boots,

the odd chicken feather on his tweed jacket but, in true gentleman farmer style, a shirt and tie — rallies guests after dinner for a jolly spoon-playing session. Out come sets of ancestral silver spoons, and one is taught to click and clunk and whack one’s thighs with wild-eyed abandon. For the more retiring guests, there’s lounging by big open fires beneath solemn portraits of a long line of Percevals, or a tour of Temple House to inspect stuffed stag heads, startled birds preserved in glass domes, assorted Victorian bric-a-brac, and many of the mansion’s 97 rooms (some are used to store wood or wine, others are simply shut off). As may be expected of a house with more than 300 years of history, there is a resident ghost, a certain Captain Armstrong whose coach-and-four can sometimes be heard approaching on a dark and stormy night. A one-time neighbour, Captain Armstrong, A has been dead longer than those fragile Temple House curtains have been hanging, but the percevals enjoy relating ghostly tales to sceptical guests. Having soundly slept, with no sudden visits by the good captain, you can spend an easy day at Temple House, perhaps taking out a bicycle for country rambling or trying your luck fishing for pike or perch on the estate’s big lake. The property covers some 1000 acres of farm and woodland, and if you’re so inclined, shooting for snipe, woodcock and duck can be organised. Temple House is open from the beginning of March to the end of November and is one of 33 properties collectively marketed by Ryanair under the “Hidden Ireland” banner. These family-run establishments are too small to be proper hotels, but rather too grand to be considered just B and Bs.

Travel editor’s note: Passengers travelling on advance-purchase and excursion fares with Air New Zealand can fly from Gatwick or Frankfurt to Ireland and back at no extra cost on Aer Lingus’s connecting services. The arrangement also allows travellers to fly free from Gatwick to Ireland and back to Frankfurt, or vice versa.