Sean's Castle - Grand Design

johnnyone234 · September 12, 2012, 9:03pm

Grand Designs Celtic tale of anglo, a roscommon castle and even an appearance of ronan lyons
fascinating
anyone else see it

The new series kicks off with a Grand Design on an epic scale, with the story of one man’s heroic attempt to fulfil his childhood dream and bring back from the ruins an incredible castle set in one of the most beautiful landscapes of southern Ireland.

Actor Sean Simons fell in love with the ruins of Cloontykilla Castle when he played there as a boy. Years later he bought it, with the idea of turning it into a spectacular, theatrical mock 16th century home, complete with grand baronial hall, luxury bedrooms, sweeping staircases, water spouting gargoyles, Jacuzzis in the battlements and a huge recording studio in the basement.
But would it prove to be a magnificent personal masterpiece, or a garish sub-Disneyesque disaster?

After borrowing an eye-watering 1.2 million Euros, Sean launches into his project just as Ireland plunges into recession. He has a head full of fairy tales, but no help from an architect, and only a few detailed design drawings. Making things up as you go along is fine if you’re building a toy castle, but not when you’ve got a large team of builders on site, a schedule to hit and the bank looking over your shoulder.

channel4.com/programmes/gran … /episode-1

slasher · September 12, 2012, 9:09pm

I thought it was a repeat with all the Anglo stuff, though the bank ended up leaving him high and dry, I didnt have as much sympathy as I might have had; he must have been an infuriating fecker to work with, with all the ad hoc changes.

yoganmahew · September 12, 2012, 9:10pm

I have to say, I feel some sympathy for him. Partly because I have a friend in a similar situation (now most likely NAMA’d). Partly because it was 2008 that the bank started to give him the money/gave him the approval. They’ve now left him in limbo.

Homemaker · September 12, 2012, 9:54pm

He was an awful eejit though

yoganmahew · September 12, 2012, 10:09pm

Oh god yeah

Terra_Incognita · September 12, 2012, 11:16pm

He was extremely nieave.

IKnockAtTheDoor · September 13, 2012, 10:30am

+1

I couldn’t stand him! Working with or for him would have been a nightmare. The way he knocked down internal walls over a weekend and thought he was the great lad would have pushed me over the edge… To cap it all off then he sacked the workforce for not working as fast as he would like! It’s hard to keep to a schedule when the owner of the house is knocking down walls on a whim I’m sure…

mocame · September 13, 2012, 11:08am

Saw this one and thought it was highly entertaining but embarrassing - it really exposed the full extent of the gombeenism which does on in this country to (what I imagine is) the middle class, Brits who make up the Grand Designs audience.

There is the evidence folks:

the programme examined the renovation of a listed building which is by law supposed to be supervised by an architect but there was no evidence of one.
there were apparently no drawings to guide the unfortunate builders which raises the question of how Roscommon County Council could have reached a decision on planning permission.
half way through the build the owner abandoned plans to build a glass safety railing on the roof and replaced it with a stone wall, thereby breaching planning permission. But viewers were told ‘the Heritage Officer loves the new wall’.
-Despite moaning about how the ‘ordinary man’ is paying the price for the bust, the castle’s owner fired his builders for no obvious reason in the middle of the build which was also in the middle of the bust. Their chances of getting new employment in construction in that part of the country at the time were close to zero.
the banks funded this folly in the first place: the estimated renovation costs were over a million, it had no plans and no obvious function (bedrooms too small for a high class hotel) and is in a beautiful part of the country, but tourists are as scarce as hens’ teeth in Roscommon.

johnnyone234 · September 13, 2012, 11:14am

mocame:

Saw this one and thought it was highly entertaining but embarrassing - it really exposed the full extent of the gombeenism which does on in this country to (what I imagine is) the middle class, Brits who make up the Grand Designs audience.

There is the evidence folks:

the programme examined the renovation of a listed building which is by law supposed to be supervised by an architect but there was no evidence of one.

there were apparently no drawings to guide the unfortunate builders which raises the question of how Roscommon County Council could have reached a decision on planning permission.

half way through the build the owner abandoned plans to build a glass safety railing on the roof and replaced it with a stone wall, thereby breaching planning permission. But viewers were told ‘the Heritage Officer loves the new wall’.
-Despite moaning about how the ‘ordinary man’ is paying the price for the bust, the castle’s owner fired his builders for no obvious reason in the middle of the build which was also in the middle of the bust. Their chances of getting new employment in construction in that part of the country at the time were close to zero.

the banks funded this folly in the first place: the estimated renovation costs were over a million, it had no plans and no obvious function (bedrooms too small for a high class hotel) and is in a beautiful part of the country, but tourists are as scarce as hens’ teeth in Roscommon.

I doubt if there was any proper financial plan from Anglo
As regards embarrassing, it was good to see such things exposed to as wide an audience as possible. The exposure of all kinds of gombeenism is to be encouraged.

Dubhgeannain · September 13, 2012, 11:20am

+1

It was a beautiful location all the same.

NegativeEquity · September 13, 2012, 11:21am

What exactly has Sean Simons acted in?

johnnyone234 · September 13, 2012, 11:24am

Grand Designs?

Puck_may_be_Famous · September 13, 2012, 11:42am

You should read the comments in the linked article in the OP.

KOR101 · September 13, 2012, 3:27pm

mocame:

Saw this one and thought it was highly entertaining but embarrassing - it really exposed the full extent of the gombeenism which does on in this country to (what I imagine is) the middle class, Brits who make up the Grand Designs audience.

There is the evidence folks:

the programme examined the renovation of a listed building which is by law supposed to be supervised by an architect but there was no evidence of one.

there were apparently no drawings to guide the unfortunate builders which raises the question of how Roscommon County Council could have reached a decision on planning permission.

half way through the build the owner abandoned plans to build a glass safety railing on the roof and replaced it with a stone wall, thereby breaching planning permission. But viewers were told ‘the Heritage Officer loves the new wall’.
-Despite moaning about how the ‘ordinary man’ is paying the price for the bust, the castle’s owner fired his builders for no obvious reason in the middle of the build which was also in the middle of the bust. Their chances of getting new employment in construction in that part of the country at the time were close to zero.

the banks funded this folly in the first place: the estimated renovation costs were over a million, it had no plans and no obvious function (bedrooms too small for a high class hotel) and is in a beautiful part of the country, but tourists are as scarce as hens’ teeth in Roscommon.

Perfectly put. And, he can’t see the connection between his ‘anything goes’ attitude and what’s happened in the banks.

ex-Patrick · September 13, 2012, 3:56pm

I wonder if it’s the same “actor Sean Simon” who’s mentioned here: boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=50168 for buying the beautiful St George’s church in Hardwicke Place and then failing to turn it into a theatre.

Edit: Hardwicke Place

Homemaker · October 17, 2012, 10:30pm

Did anyone see the kennington water tower tonight?
Amazing, the kitchen/living room box was beautiful even without The work done to the tower. That 360° panoramic room was jaw dropping
All for the same money as a large run of the mill trophy house in d4

channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/episode-guide/series-9/episode-5

Some pretty deep pockets

yoganmahew · October 18, 2012, 7:43am

It’s the first one of these that I have been genuinely impressed with. The developer came over as a bit of a chancer at the start, but given that all the development work happened on time, the project itself ran pretty smoothly, he is clearly a man of some talent.

There’s something interesting about it that I can’t quite put my finger on - he’s liquidated the rest of his portfolio and sunk it into this house. It is, essentially, a crash-proof house I reckon, given that it is unique and fabulously located. Am I too obsessed with crashes? Probably

greentree · October 18, 2012, 8:16am

‘Southern Ireland’? I thought the castle was in Roscommon?

Homemaker · October 18, 2012, 9:07am

I was the same yogi, so impressed

I was gasping at it’s beauty, I said to the oh that it must be the best place to live in London…he’s not as impressed by the impracticality but I don’t know, it’s a major flaw but there is so much more to it. There was one other a couple of years ago with an ethnic Chinese girl in Falmouth or somewhere that really impressed me but this one blew me away

Now, 3/4 bed semi in d4…oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about

flash · October 18, 2012, 9:50am

Last night’s GD was the most jaw-droppingly awesome ever. Not sure I’d like to live in it, but I would honestly pay money just for a tour around. It was incredible.