Billionaire James Dyson opens his Waterford estate to opera performances
Ballynatray House
Vacuum cleaner magnate James Dyson is opening up his 850-acre estate in Waterford to recital performances as part of the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival.
The estate has been catching headlines since it came under the ownership of Dyson for a reported fee of €30 million in 2024.
Major construction works have been ongoing since the purchase and the residence was seen last year almost entirely enclosed in scaffolding and screening (READ MORE).
Dyson recently received planning permission to construct a tennis court on the grounds. He has also planned for the addition of a helicopter landing pad.
Amidst this, Ballynatray House has now joined the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival as a recital venue.
The inaugural recital features Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught and is already sold out.
The festival takes place from May 26 to June 1, across 13 historic homes and venues in Lismore, Youghal, Dungarvan, and Castlemartyr.
Ballynatray is an 850-acre estate which features an 18th-century classical-style house and an associated farm complex.
According to the Historic Houses of Ireland index, Ballynatray House is eleven bays long and five bays wide, and of two storeys over a basement. The house has a late-Georgian appearance.
The index states: "The interior was clearly built for entertaining on the grandest scale, with a sumptuous suite of interconnecting reception rooms, all with stupendous views, wide, double mahogany doors and some fine early nineteenth century plasterwork."
The house was also extensively worked on in the late 1990s by a previous owner.
