When Jenny Green moved to her husband's family hotel in County Cork, she was keen to ensure that it kept its distinctly personal feel

Sitting in the garden of Ballyvolane House, listening to birdsong and sipping a refreshing drink that Jenny Green has made from home-grown fruit, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in the middle of nowhere. “In fact,” says Jenny, “we're only half an hour from the centre of Cork. I can drive there and get the most superb local food in the English Market: farmhouse cheeses, local charcuterie, fresh fish and great organic produce.”

Jenny and her husband, Justin, returned to Ireland in 2004 to take over the management of Ballyvolane, which Justin's grandfather bought in 1955 and his parents turned into a country-house hotel in the mid 1980s. “Actually, we don't like the 'hotel' label,” says Justin. “This is a family home that happens to take guests.” Evidence of this sentiment is everywhere, from the gumboots lined up at night in the porch, to the dining room with its feel of an old-fashioned house party.

It is all a far cry from Babington House in Somerset, where Justin was general manager and Jenny ran the spa until returning to Ballyvolane. That hip country retreat, part of the Soho House group, is very much London in the country but, as Justin says, “Babington is very laid-back and that is what it has in common with Ballyvolane. The basic difference, though, is that here we are welcoming people into what is really our home.”

And home is special; set in 15 acres of gardens and parkland, the house dates from 1728 and was modified in 1847. Its new “caretakers” trained in hotel management, met while working in Hong Kong where Jenny grew up, and married in 1999. They have two sons, Toby, six, and Jamie, two.

Since taking the reins at Ballyvolane, the couple have restored the original living room. “It's a glorious room with a terrific view of the gardens but, long before the house started taking guests, it had become the kitchen and general family room,” says Jenny. “We removed the false ceiling and revealed the Victorian plasterwork and simply returned it to its original function.”

The kitchen, in turn, has been moved back to its former position, so that the dynamics of the house are now much closer to what they were at the start. “If we were living here without guests,” says Justin, “this never would have happened.” The walled garden, part of which supplies the kitchen with fresh produce, will be the site of the next project: six luxurious tents. “They will cost more than six new bedrooms,” Justin says, “as there will be under-floor heating and the bathrooms will be postively decadent.” The communal feel at Ballyvolane is not just one of its main attractions, it is also a necessity. “Without sharing this lovely place,” says Jenny, “we couldn't afford to live in it.”

Ballyvolane House, Castlelyons, Fermoy, County Cork, (00 353) 25 36349; www.ballyvolanehouse.ie.

WORDS TOM DOORLEY
PHOTOGRAPHS DAN STEVENS AT SARAH DAW
SEPTEMBER 2006