Georgian gem

Clareville House, Oughterard, Co Galway. €795,000


Clareville House is a Georgian country property situated about a mile outside Oughterard, the gateway to Connemara.

Once the home of Galway County MP Colonel Richard Martin (pictured right), this was the family's second residence, used when their primary place of residence, Ballinahinch Castle, was inaccessible in winter.

The MP led a colourful life. As a young man he earned the moniker Hairtrigger Dick, because of the hundreds of duels he fought.

Later in life he was nicknamed Humanity Dick because of his animal rights activism, which resulted in the passing of Martin’s Act of 1822. His evangelicalism resulted in him being lampooned in cartoons as a donkey-eared man. He also championed Catholic Emancipation and is also said to have survived two shipwrecks.

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The four-bedroom detached house, which is also called Dick Martin’s Gate Lodge, measures 311 square metre (3,350 sq ft) and is asking €795,000 through agents DNG Martin O’Connor.

The listed property was last renovated in 2008, as part of an ongoing upgrade that the present owner has undertaken over the past 20 years.

The house has a symmetrical square entrance hall with a fanlight over the front door. The living and dining rooms lead off the entrance hall. Both are fine, square rooms.

From the inner hall a curved staircase leads up to the first floor. To the rear is a family room and terracotta-tiled kitchen, complete with four- door, oil-fired Aga.

The house has four bedrooms, all on the first floor. The master bedroom has an ensuite bathroom. The family bathroom has a separate bath and shower.

There are numerous outbuildings including a stone lofted stable and coach buildings together with garage, stable and tack rooms.

The detached house is on 1.25 acres of mature gardens that are bisected by the N59, the Clifden Road.

They feature magnolias, camellias, rhododendrons, azalias and an abundance of trees and shrubs.

Across the N59 road in front of the property the house is being sold with 50 metres of river frontage, along the banks of the Owenriff River.

The property comes with salmon and trout fishing rights.