First Time on the Market in 97 Years: A Fermoy Convent With 15 Bedrooms and 6.8 Acres for €850,000

• The Presentation Convent in Fermoy, Co Cork, was listed with a guide of €850,000
• The house, built around 1820, has more than 10,000 sq ft and 6.8 acres
• The Presentation Order acquired it in 1922 and ran schools and a novitiate there
• It was home to two remaining sisters, who were moving locally

A large convent in Fermoy, County Cork, came onto the market for the first time in 97 years, the Irish Examiner reported in July 2019. The Presentation Convent was offered with a guide of €850,000 through John Hodnett of Hodnett Forde.

The house was built around 1820 as a private residence and was once linked to distillery lands. The Presentation Order acquired it in 1922, and it went on to house a primary school, a secondary school and a novitiate. By 2019 it was a community home for two sisters, Sr Catherine and Sr Eucharia, who were moving elsewhere in the town.

The building has more than 10,000 square feet over a partial basement, with 15 bedrooms and three main reception rooms, one of them a former ballroom, as well as a west-facing sun room. The 6.8 acres include a pond, an orchard, walled grounds and courtyard buildings. A heritage description noted that the convent’s scale and site made it a prominent feature of the Fermoy townscape, with well-executed Italianate details.

The agent suggested uses in hospitality, tourism or accommodation. Past pupils include Dr Patricia Casey, professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin.

Convents like Fermoy’s show how religious orders came to own some of the finest houses in Irish towns, and how those buildings are now returning to the market as orders shrink. For Jamaican investors in hospitality, or returnees looking for a large property, a 15-bedroom house on nearly seven acres at this price looks attractive. But heating, repair and change-of-use planning costs for a 200-year-old building must be counted before bidding.

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