If you are within walking distance of Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, then a cottage on the Beara Peninsula must seem like another world away. After all, it is more than 350km from the Dublin suburb and the nearest town, Kenmare, is a 20-minute drive away.
But it was precisely this remoteness that drew Dubliners Philip and Emma Joyce (@jacobs.cottage) to the house.
“I’d been living in Blanchardstown all my life,” he says. In fact, they were so settled there that they had bought his childhood home in 2016 after his parents died.
“We had planned on staying around and I had thought of having a holiday home in the countryside, but then Covid came.”
When remote work became the norm during the pandemic, they began talking about leaving Dublin.
“Kerry has always been my favourite spot, and it just happened to be the place where this house came up.”
While he doesn’t have many family ties in Dublin, Emma does, so that was a major consideration when they began thinking about moving across the country. He is a software product designer, so his main concern was ensuring he had reliable internet so that he could do his job. Their son Noah was finishing primary school, and Emma had been considering a career break from the civil service, so the timing felt right. They moved into the four-bedroom cottage on an acre of ground in May 2025, naming it Jacob’s Cottage. This was in memory of their son who died when he was a baby, and it ensured he would be a central part of this new stage in their lives.
The house in Lauragh, on the road to the Healy Pass, was originally built in the 1800s. It was rebuilt on the same footprint by local builder Seán Healy of Lauragh Construction, so it looks identical to the original cottage from the front. He also added a flat-roof extension at the back for an open-plan kitchen and living area.
“The whole house was completely bare, so from a design point of view it was great,” Philip says. “We had to figure out what to do with each room and that’s still ongoing.”
They lived in the house for six months before their kitchen arrived. “Living off an air fryer and a little Ikea hob was our main source of cooking, but we survived and I am glad that we did that. When we renovated our Dublin home, one of the things I learned was that you should take your time living in the space, and figuring out how you naturally move towards certain areas.”
When planning their Kube kitchen, they were conscious that it should not take the focus away from the three-metre-long window that looks on to the Caha Mountains. There are no cabinets at eye level, and the rich green cabinets accentuate the various shades of green on display outside the window. The worktops from Stone Surfaces are silestone, an engineered quartz surface that is scratch and stain resistant and nonporous. The suspended Le Feu bioethanol fireplace in the living area is a work of art in itself, and gives the impression of floating flames. He sourced it in CA Design in Dublin, along with the Scandinavian-style kitchen stools.
Philip is a keen photographer, and regularly posts images of the house and surrounding landscape on his Instagram page @jacobs.cottage. They highlight his passion for good design. “My mantra is less but better – less things in the house, but getting the best you can afford, choosing things that will stand the test of time and avoiding trends.” He has been enjoying living in an area that is a magnet for creative people. “The great thing about Kenmare is the amount of artists and furniture makers that are so close to us,” he says. “We’ve already got a few prints around the home from local artists.”
They are now working with a local woodworker to design shelves, and a ceiling for a library and office that will replace one of the bedrooms. The final small bedroom will become a snug that can double as a bedroom when visitors come to stay.
He loves the contrast between the front part of the house, with the narrow hallway and dark bedrooms, and the large open-plan area at the back looking out on the landscape. “Not every room has to be completely filled with light, which is something I’ve learned over time.”
The landscape changes throughout the day depending on the weather, and they certainly experience a lot of weather on the Beara Peninsula. But he says they didn’t struggle during their first winter in Kerry. “It’s definitely windier than Dublin, but the rain is the same. No matter if you’re in Dublin or Kerry the winters are cold and long and wet.”
The house has a Ber of A2 and he says he has never felt cold, even on the stormiest of days. “The walls are so thick, and we have the heat pump and underfloor heating, so the temperature is very consistent.”
The next task will be the garden, “but that’s more of a future aspiration. We didn’t even have a back garden before, and now we have loads of space and loads of plans around how the garden should be laid out”.
Now that they’ve spent more than a year in Kerry, do they ever miss Dublin? Emma misses the convenience of walking to a cafe or the shops nearby, but Philip says “I could stay home for a week and not miss going out. Even driving from the house into town is different, no traffic lights, no roundabouts – it’s far more enjoyable than driving around Dublin. But from a practical point of view, you do need to plan around when you need to go shopping and stuff like that.”
A big setback came when he was laid off in November, but he has since got a new job. “That was the biggest challenge because obviously you have fewer options when you’re not in Dublin, because you are only able to do remote work or one day in the city.”
Such a dramatic change of lifestyle would not suit everyone, but they have no regrets. “We are more interested in a slower lifestyle and we are both very into nature and the landscape and it suits us. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
They have embraced the near total silence at night, after a lifetime of listening to the distant hum of traffic. “We really noticed the lack of any noise, apart from the animals. We are surrounded by sheep, cows and deer,” he says.
They were also struck by the night sky. “I was completely blown away by the lack of light pollution. It’s one of the clearest night skies I’ve ever seen. When you get a clear night, you are surrounded by stars. It is magical.”