Castleacre's House Of The Month - The Reawakening of Solsborough House
Castleacre’s House Of The Month – The Reawakening of Solsborough House
- 28 May 2026
- Comments: 0
- Posted by: Castleacre
Castleacre specialises in protecting period properties, heritage houses, and protected structures. We know just how much hard work and time the owners invest in looking after these buildings, breathing life into them and helping them remain integral to Ireland’s cultural and community history.
Each month, we will focus on the story behind one of these beautiful character homes. We spoke with our clients, Emma and William Kennedy at Solsborough House. Nenagh, Co Tipperary.
Hidden deep in the Tipperary countryside Solsborough House had stood abandoned for more than half a century before Emma and William Kennedy bought the estate in 2014 and began bringing it back to life.
Built in the mid-1700s, the once grand Solsborough House had become a ruin over six decades, roofless, with trees thriving inside as nature reclaimed the building. What the Kennedys have created since they took Solsborough on is rare – a historic estate with true up-market poise and just the right touch of quirkiness.
When Emma and William first encountered Solsborough, the house felt almost lost to the landscape. Trees had begun growing through the interiors, and the building, abandoned since the early 1950s, seemed less like a restoration project than a forgotten world hidden in plain sight. Yet what began as a practical purchase for farmland would eventually become one of Ireland’s most ambitious private restorations.
Solsborough’s story is unusually lucky in the Irish pantheon of heroic restorations. Emma, originally from the UK, and her husband William Kennedy, who grew up on the farm next door, did not set out to become saviours of a great house. William had spent several decades living and working in the London financial sector, before then relocating to Zurich with his wife Emma. Returning to Ireland was their ultimate ambition and they bought the Solsborough estate chiefly for its farmland – the house itself, which had been left empty for decades, felt like someone else’s dream.
“We had no plan, purely just wanted the farmland,” Emma recalls. “Then plans changed.”
For Emma, the journey to Solsborough was equally unexpected. A career in London in corporate law and then finance eventually gave way to dairy farming and, ultimately, the restoration of one of Tipperary’s forgotten country houses. Together, she and William slowly pieced together a vision for Solsborough over several years, one that grew naturally from the place itself rather than from any grand masterplan.
So while the Kennedys may not have intended to rescue Solsborough House originally, it began emerging as a priority for them and with William’s deep local ties, he knew the the people he wanted to work on the project. Emma describes how, “an amazing team of local trades and craftspeople” gathered around the project. Then came another stroke of luck: planning permission was turned around in just six weeks, allowing them to begin almost immediately.
“We were so lucky that, because it was an utter ruin, we were able to restore it from scratch.”
In Ireland, restoring a historic property often becomes a battle of compromise and attrition. Solsborough’s path was gentler, having deep local knowledge, steady decision-making, and a building so far gone that it allowed for clarity rather than constraint. The 250-year-old house, roofless since 1953 and once filled with trees, slowly became a place of warmth and light.
The Ultimate Guest Experience
Emma took on the design and project management from end to end. Her references were travel-honed, shaped by years spent noticing what the best hotels quietly get right, but the brief remained simple: Irish warmth, natural light, and rooms that encourage people to relax.
“There is nothing worse than going to a hotel that is over-stuffed,” she says.
Solsborough avoids that trap entirely. The traditional Georgian bones remain, but the mood is modern and measured. Portraits are replaced by a striking photographic print of two older women “who have lived a life.” The hospitality ethos is precise: up-market, quietly luxurious, and original.
It is the kind of place where guests instinctively kick off their shoes before realising the rug beneath their feet has been chosen as carefully as the art on the walls. Families move from one home to another, and couples find corners that feel private.
“I want everyone who walks through that door to feel like they have just had a big hug. It gives me joy when I see people come in, kick their shoes off and snuggle right in.”
Emma says.
When the doors finally opened, more than 4,000 neighbours came to see Solsborough’s transformation. The local community seemed to be genuinely delighted that this landmark country house had been brought back to life, proud that the Kennedys had chosen to invest in the future life of the building and Tipperary’s heritage.
