Our Story A living family estate.

A Shared Way of Seeing

Long before today’s Burtown began to take shape, travel played an important part in both our lives.

Joanna studied interior design before setting up her own jewellery business, travelling to places such as Taxco in Mexico for silver and Jaipur in India for stones and inspiration.

James’s work as a photographer increasingly took him around Ireland and across the world, photographing houses, interiors, gardens and the people who created them.

After meeting, Joanna began accompanying James on many of these assignments, working alongside him on styling and production.

Those journeys became an education in themselves.

We discovered places together, collected ideas and objects, and realised that we often responded to the same things — the same light, the same room, the same combination of colours, an extraordinary garden, a beautifully laid table or somewhere that simply had atmosphere.

Travelling as a Family

Then the children came along, but the travelling didn’t entirely stop.

Whenever possible, they travelled with us.

Work and family life became intertwined as James continued photographing houses and interiors and producing books, while together we were constantly exposed to different approaches to architecture, gardens, food, hospitality and the way people lived.

James’s work eventually included an extensive series of books on houses, gardens and interiors, alongside the bestselling Vanishing Ireland series.

But perhaps more important than any individual project was what those years taught us.

We were looking all the time.

And gradually, many of the things we had absorbed elsewhere began finding their way back to Burtown.

Coming Home to Burtown

Our first home together at Burtown was the Stable Yard House.

At that stage, there was no grand plan to turn the estate into what it is today. Burtown was our home, surrounded by old buildings, gardens, farmland and generations of family history. We simply began doing things.

Buildings were repaired and given new purposes. Gardens were reclaimed and developed. Rooms changed. Objects collected on our travels found homes. Ideas that had been sitting quietly in the back of our minds suddenly had somewhere to go.

One project led naturally to another.

That gradual evolution remains very much how Burtown works today.

Food Becomes Part of the Story

Food was always important at home, and Joanna had a natural instinct and passion for cooking.

As we began opening Burtown to more visitors, she spearheaded our first Gallery Café — a small beginning that would ultimately change the direction of the estate.

What started relatively simply revealed something important: food provided another way of sharing Burtown.

The walled kitchen garden had supplied the house for generations. Suddenly there was an opportunity to connect what was growing outside with what visitors were eating.

Over time the café evolved, ambitions grew and eventually The Green Barn emerged — allowing food, gardens, interiors and hospitality to come together on a much larger scale.

Today that relationship remains fundamental to the way we think about Burtown.

Discover The Green Barn

Built Together

It is difficult to divide Burtown neatly into things created by James and things created by Joanna.

We have always worked together.

Photography, interiors, styling, food, gardens, buildings and hospitality overlap constantly, and one person’s idea invariably becomes something shaped by both.

Our different strengths have allowed us to challenge and complement one another, while the years of travelling and working together gave us a shared visual language.

Perhaps more than anything else, that collaboration is what has shaped the Burtown people experience today.

It has never been the vision of one person.

Old Buildings, New Lives

Much of Burtown’s evolution has involved looking again at buildings that were already here and imagining what else they might become.

The Stable Yard became somewhere for guests to stay. Agricultural buildings were restored and adapted. The Green Barn grew from the working fabric of the estate. The Pantry and Shop have brought new life to other spaces.

New accommodation and gathering spaces continue that process today.

We are not interested in preserving Burtown unchanged.

We want to respect what is here while allowing the estate to remain useful, creative and alive.

A Family Home

For all that has changed, Burtown remains first and foremost our family home.

Our children have grown up amongst all of this — the building projects, gardens, restaurant, photo shoots, events and the constant arrival of the next idea.

Family life and work have rarely existed separately here.

That is part of Burtown’s character and perhaps part of the reason it doesn’t feel like a conventional hotel, restaurant or visitor attraction.

It was never created as one.

Sharing Burtown

Over time, we have found different ways of sharing the estate.

You can stay here, eat at The Green Barn, explore the wider landscape, discover art and sculpture, browse The Burtown Shop, come for music or gather family and friends for an important occasion.

None of these things exists entirely on its own.

Together they form the experience of Burtown.

Stay at Burtown

The Next Chapter

Burtown continues to evolve.

New gardens are planted, old buildings find new purposes, furniture arrives in the Shop, menus change with the seasons and new places to stay and gather are gradually created across the estate.

There will always be another project, another building and another idea.

That, perhaps, is the point.

Burtown isn’t a hotel, a restaurant, a garden or an events venue.

It is first and foremost our home — a living family estate that we are fortunate to share.

Explore the Estate