Well-known billionaire gets go-ahead for alterations to historic Waterford home
Ballynatray House
Restoration works at Ballynatray House in west Waterford continue to advance, with a new set of plans greenlit by Waterford Council this week.
The estate has undergone significant work since coming under the ownership last year of multibillionaire vacuum cleaner magnate James Dyson for a reported fee of €30 million.
Previously planned at the site in recent months has been the restoration of the estate's gatehouses, various demolition works, and the installation of a new internal lift within the iconic residence.
Also planned on the grounds of the estate is a helicopter landing area. These plans were subsequently appealed (full story).
A planning application which was submitted in June was conditionally approved last week.
The application outlined intentions to alter the existing ground levels to the south of Ballynatray House.
A 300mm reduction in the height of the existing south basement lightwell wall, and the removal and refitting of existing capping have been approved.
Reinstating a grass path across the south lawn has also been greenlit.
The premises is an 18th-century classical-style house with an associated farm complex.
It is listed within the Record of Protected Structures and by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
According to the Historic Houses of Ireland index, Ballynatray is eleven bays long and five bays wide, and of two storeys over a basement. The house has a late-Georgian appearance.
The index says: "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 sits on an 850-acre estate and was seen last year almost entirely enclosed in scaffolding and screening as restoration works commenced.
The house was also extensively worked on in the late 1990s by a previous owner.
