Bestselling author’s house is on the market for €1.65m
THE HOUSE bought by best-selling author Eoin Colfer in the mid-noughties, shortly after his ‘Artemis Fowl’ series took off globally, is for sale with an asking price of €1.65m.
The former school teacher purchased Ballymorris House from Enda and the late Pierce Maher over ten years ago. The Mahers were local GPs who Eoin and his wife Jackie knew from visits to the adjoining practice, and it was a house that they had always admired. The 18th century farmhouse is set on 14 acres of land, about two miles from Wexford town, and has been renovated substantially by the Colfers.
Eoin’s architect brother Donal designed an extension onto the back of the house as well as the incorporation of old outbuildings. Meanwhile, Emily Maher, daughter of Pierce and Enda, and a friend of Jackie’s, was consulted for her interior design expertise, as she is the owner of the Dun Laoghaire based Lost Weekend company.
The house features an open-plan kitchen, family room, dining room, three bedrooms plus a self-contained apartment with separate access from the side of the residence; and a study, in which the author wrote five Artemis Fowl books, two musicals, a ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ sequel and five graphic novels.
In recent years, the family moved to Dublin where Eoin and Jackie’s sons Finn and Sean are in college and school. Eoin’s mother Noirin lives in the couple’s original house in Wexford town and work is ongoing on a new house in Wygram for Eoin and Jackie. Local auctioneer, Adrian Haythorntwaite, who is selling the property, said the house was fresh on the market and was a fabulous property, remarking that the various additions and work done on the building was what would drive people towards it. He believed the house could go for more than the asking price of €1.65m but said that, even at that, it would not be the most expensive house he had sold in the county in the last 18 months.