Garden focus to Kilmacanogue home

Knockranny, at Rocky Valley Drive, Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, is a period property on over four acres. It has been a family home to three generations for the past 40 years, and has continued potential as a large family home, with some scope for development, given the extent of the grounds.

Hamilton Osborne King is quoting a guide price of "in excess of £1 million" prior to auction on September 27th.

Approached via a long, tree-lined tarmacadam driveway, the house was built in 1912 for an Austrian professor of botany working in Trinity College, Dublin, which explains the profusion of rare trees and plants. A later family built a magical walk-through rockery, and the present owners, both keen gardeners, have continued to cultivate the garden. All the main rooms face south, linked to the garden via French windows and a verandah. Central heating is oil fired.

Accommodation is spread over three storeys with the accent on space. This is a roomy house with lots of period detail still intact, such as pine floors in three reception rooms, interior panelled doors, and original cast-iron fireplaces in some of the bedrooms. The large drawingroom has four windows giving different views of the garden, and is decorated in autumn colours. Comprehensively furnished with easy chairs, bookcases, piano and table it has a large, square bay window. Folding doors lead from the hall to a diningroom. Both drawingroom and diningroom have a mahogany mantelpiece from Hicks of Dublin, and French windows to the garden.

Folding doors connect a large sitting/family room with extensive wall shelving to an equally large kitchen. While the Formica kitchen fittings are dated, there is a new ceramic tiled floor in a rust shade in the kitchen and utility rooms which would work beautifully with a contemporary revamp in wood. A Creda oven and Moffet ceramic hob are included in the price. The large utility room leads to a covered area with a lavatory and a storage room. There is another lavatory off the hall, and a walk-in shelved cupboard under the stairs.

A large, first-floor bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe, with a kitchenette and bathroom nearby. This offers easy scope for conversion to an en suite bedroom with kitchenette, thereby creating self-contained accommodation for guests or an au pair. There are three more bedrooms, a bathroom and separate lavatory on this floor.

The top floor has three bedrooms, including one attractive double bedroom with sloping ceilings and excellent undereaves storage. There is a cloakroom with wash-hand basin, and sufficient space on this floor to create en suite bedrooms, or to convert a bedroom into a bathroom.

A detached garage has stairs to an overhead loft. The large yard also has a stable and two storage sheds, the whole area offering potential for a home-based business. Nearby is a heated greenhouse, garden frames and potting shed. There is a large lawn in front of the house. Elsewhere, there is a hard tennis court, a rose garden, a wellstocked fruit and vegetable garden, herbaceous border and rockery with paths and trails running through.