For the price of a four-bedroom semi in South County Dublin, you can buy a castle in Obama country with A-list pedigree and rock star sensibilities. Patrick Bergin's castle comes with a boot room, a green room, a prayer room, a spy hole and "a dungeon".
Sleeping With The Enemy star Patrick Bergin and his wife Helen Goldin are selling their castle in Obama country in Co Tipperary.
They’ve owned it for 35 years, having purchased it after the release of the 1991 thriller about a woman, played by Julia Roberts, who fakes her death to escape her abusive, controlling husband, only for him to track her down.
Address: Emmel Castle, Emmel, Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary, E53 A598
Asking price: €995,000
Joint agents: Sherry FitzGerald Country Homes and Sherry FitzGerald Talbot
Bergin shone as the handsome yet sinister spouse, but the property would most likely have appealed to another of his roles, that of Robin Hood in the titular film with Uma Thurman as Maid Marion.
The castle is a layered part of Irish history, starting with a 15th-century tower house that once belonged to the O’Carroll clan.
This part of the property looks like a film set, a place where you expect to find a reclusive rock star entertaining guests, minions and hangers-on in the medieval banquet hall, which has a table big enough to accommodate 20.
Guests might even be prompted to swing out of the chandeliers.
It is a theatrical space with a wrought-iron gate that prompted Goldin’s grandchildren to call it the dungeon.
Cut stone steps lead up past an art studio used by the couple to an oak staircase up to the battlements.
From the battlements, rising 90 feet, there can be, on a clear day, panoramic views stretching across five counties: Offaly, Limerick, Clare, Galway, and Tipperary.
The real appeal of the castle is the ability to escape the exposed stone town when you’ve had your fun with it in favour of luxuriously large rooms in the newer part of the property, the Georgian property, which is set over three floors.
At entrance level there is a sweeping staircase with a large family room that leads across to the green room in the tower, so-called as it is one of the most relaxing spaces in the house, akin to the space actors, performers and presenters spend time in before and, more crucially, after they do a show.
Down at garden level is the kitchen and boot room, prayer room with a spy hole in the hall.
The red room in the tower is a music room and where Bergin stores many of the guitars in his collection. He plays with his band Patrick Bergin and the Spirit Merchants. Many more are housed in the 18th century outbuildings.
The four-to-six-bedroom property, depending on how you configure it, extends to a whopping 662 square metres of characterful space along with grounds and 20 acres of private woodlands, all for the price of a south country Dublin suburban semi.
Sherry FitzGerald Country Homes and Sherry FitzGerald Talbot are seeking €995,000 for the BER-exempt property.
With Traitors back on our screens, it seems a fitting time to sell a castle. Cloughjordan is a 10-minute drive, while Portumna is 20 minutes away.
Shannon Airport is an hour by car, while the journey time to Dublin Airport is about 90 minutes.
