The houses of contentment

The need for diversification to keep estates afloat is nothing new-but be it Irish whiskey or Welsh gin, country-house brews look like the next big thing, believes Matthew Dennison

- Matthew Dennison

MISCHIEVOUS he may have been, but the teetotal Edwardian forebear who installed a slate plaque above the entry to the ancient cattle sheds behind Lakeview House on the banks of Lough Leane in Killarney, Co Kerry, could not have anticipated its subsequent aptness. Engraved Mandarin characters spell out ‘the House of Contentment’, a euphemism for a brothel. Today, the ‘house’ in Ireland— a range of low stone buildings around a square courtyard—hints at different pleasures, filled with wooden casks that once held ruby and tawny Port and currently finish the jewel-toned, small-batch whiskeys Sir Maurice and Lady O’Connell began maturing in 2019. ‘Whiskey is a long-term business and, if you’re running a place such as this, you’re in it for the long term,’ says Sir Maurice.

The O’Connells know all about the long view. Sir Maurice’s MacCarthy forebears have been settled on this land for 900 years—in the shadow of Carrauntoohil, Ireland’s highest mountain, where the hilly range known as Macgillycuddy’s Reeks is reflected in the surface of the loch that, thanks to a volatile microclimate, switches from millpond stillness to tempest within the hour.