Westport Georgian building restored to former glory

PRAISE Karen Whyte and her partner Donnacha Curley (left) received a great reaction after appearing on The Great House Revival with host and architect Hugh Wallace last Sunday evening. Pics: RTÉ

Anton McNulty

THE owners of a newly restored Georgian-era building in the centre of Westport intend to rent it to the public for small events.
Grove House, located on Mill Street, dates back to 1770. Over the years, it has been a private house, a bank, a boarding school and, most recently, divided into flats, before it fell into dereliction. The 10,500-square-metre protected building had been left to rot for years before Westport native Karen Whyte and her partner, Donnacha Curley, bought the property for €117,000 in 2014.
Their restoration of the building featured on Sunday night’s episode of The Great House Revival on RTÉ One. The programme showed how Karen and Donnacha brought the damp and derelict building back to its former glory, but with a modern feel.

Praise
Their restoration work on the show won praise on social media, with viewers particularly taken by the final outcome. Speaking to The Mayo News following the show’s airing, Karen said that reaction to the programme has been incredible and that she and Donnacha are delighted with the final outcome.
“It was in an awful state when we bought it. Nobody wanted it,” Karen explained.
“I did a course with the Irish Georgian Society on the restoration of old buildings, and that was a real eye opener. It is totally different compared to dealing with contemporary buildings, which I was used to working on as an interior designer.
“I learned a lot from our builder, Padraig O’Malley. His brother, George, is a master craftsman in restoring old buildings. He came down to us for a day and it was interesting to learn from him. It ended up different to what we envisaged because we let the building dictate what we should do rather than change it completely. We restored it while keeping its original look and updating it for the 21st century.”

Proud
Work on the project began in earnest in late 2018, with Karen doing much of the work herself. She also wished to thank her friends and family for all their help in making sure the building was ready for the final reveal just before Christmas.
Karen and Donnacha revealed to the show host, architect Hugh Wallace, that up to €600,000 was spent on the building, which now contains a ballroom and a snug bar. Karen also said that some work remains to be done, but they hope to let the building out for events in the summer.
“What the future holds is a very good question. We hope to let it out to groups for small events, such as weddings or family functions and get-togethers. By letting it out we hope to pay for its upkeep, and we hope it will be ready for letting in June.
“We are very happy with it. It was only when we watched the programme back did I think ‘Oh my God look what we did!’.
“A lot of people around Westport knew what we were doing and often mentioned to us that they were glad the building was not left to fall down. Because the building has so much history in it and is a listed building, we feel proud that we saved the building for a few more generations.”


UNRECOGNISABLE The interior of Grove House is spectacular after the refurbishment.