Conversion leads to spacious family home in rural backwater

Co Carlow: €500,000: Situated in the heart of Co Carlow, Cloydagh is a spacious six-bedroom family house, complete with coach houses, cattle shed and storage houses. Built originally as a rectory in 1813, it was converted into a Georgian-style house after being sold into private ownership in the 1960s. The charming St John's Church still exists in original form nearby.

The property, which is surrounded by approximately six acres, is going on sale by private treaty through Ganly Walters, guiding €500,000. The grounds of the house are extensive with gardens on three sides, including a variety of plants and trees, rockery and a bluebell wood.

The fitted kitchen leads out to a patio at the back, which is bordered by a vegetable patch. From there the gardens slope down toward the River Barrow, which meanders past the bottom of the garden and boasts excellent trout and salmon fishing.

At the front of the house there is a large paddock and a lawn, on which there are two functioning ornamental ponds.

On entering the house there is an entrance hall with sweeping stairs and an aesthetic rose plaster from which hangs a chandelier. On the ground floor there is also a drawingroom, diningroom, utility room and fitted kitchen. The drawingroom and the diningroom both have cornice ceiling and marble fireplaces and have views of both the front of the house and the river.

Two of the six bedrooms are situated downstairs, one of them en suite, and there is a small family room and an office, which overlooks the back garden. Most of the rooms throughout the house have authentic Georgian windows and are double-glazed.

Upstairs, the main bedroom has a picturesque view over the back garden and river, and an en suite shower room. There are three further bedrooms upstairs, a lavatory and a further bathroom. Surrounding the house, the property continues with a workshop, a large games room, three outhouses and a stone cattle shed.

Surrounding towns include Naas and Kilkenny, but Carlow is the nearest for shopping. There are excellent golf courses within driving distance and several hunts within an hour's drive. There is also fantastic horse racing within driving distance, in particular Gowran Park, The Curragh and Punchestown.