A US billionaire who fell in love with Kinsale Co Cork when he sailed in to the scenic setting on his superyacht Scout has just completed a house purchase hat-trick — paying €4.99m for a dormer bungalow overlooking an island and the mouth of Kinsale Harbour, at Sandycove.
The off-market purchase of the 10-year-old Valley House in picturesque Sandycove brings the spend so far in and around Kinsale by wealthy heir to a US mining dynasty James Berwind to €16m. Sources say Mr Berwind also has other acquisitions in the wings.
He is known to have representatives acting on his behalf seeking a further home near Sandycove, reportedly for staff: His two Sandycove purchases are about 1km apart as the gull flies along south Cork on a headland, and the two can be linked by a public cliff-top walkway as well as by road.
The whirlwind Berwind-backed spending spree started in summer 2023 when James Berwind and his husband Kevin Clarke arrived in Kinsale on their 201ft long, black and yellow superyacht Scout — named after one of the couple’s dogs.
Mr Berwind then picked up the period home of former UCC president Gerry Wrixon for €4.5m.
He bought the Wrixons’ Georgian-era Sprayfield on 40 acres just west of Sandycove and has started a considerable upgrade to that already fine house which had an asking price of €4.75m.
While working on Sprayfield, the couple — who by then had sold a home in Florida for c€25m — split their time between the luxury yacht Scout and in Seaspray, the modern home they subsequently bought in Scilly, near the Spaniard Inn. They paid a recorded €5.5m for the white and glass box. They also started doing alterations almost immediately after at Seaspray, with scaffolding up around the just two-year-old build over the past summer.
Now, after spending €10m in their first two purchases and subsequent upgrades at contemporary Seaspray and the Georgian villa Sprayfield, further millions have been sprayed back at Sandycove, bringing the splurge so far to €16m.
Sources link James Berwind to the swoop on a family home at Sandycove, Valley House, Ballynabooley, with planning files showing it was built after local architect Steve McClew sought retention of demolition and reconstruction of an earlier dwelling on the site for clients/owners, the UCC and Bon Secours neurologist Peter Kinirons and his wife Madeleine.
James Berwind’s family fortunes come from mining and natural resources in the US, dating from the 1800s.
The family’s Berwind Corporation is said to be worth €3bn and some assessments put Mr Berwind’s own wealth at over €500m. His €16m spree to date makes him Kinsale’s biggest spender.
Meanwhile, it’s not all solo runs: Another US/Florida based yacht owner Thomas C Quick paid €4.75m for waterside Raffeen House in Scilly in 2022, while an Irish entrepreneur spent c€10m buying a modern house and land at Kinsale’s Compass Hill.
Sources say there are more big deals to come: “Kinsale is in a league of its own.” For once, sales-speak appears understated, rather than overstated.
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