Gothic gentility in the garden county

CO WICKLOW: €660,000:FANCY living in a Victorian, Gothic-style mansion at the heart of a private demesne for €660,000? Surely, even with the Tiger skinned, there must be a catch? And there is – you only get part of the mansion and you will have to share the grand entrance and gravel courtyard with a few neighbours.

Hollybrook House, Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, is just off the N11, two miles from Bray. It’s in Wicklow, but at the tame, genteel end of the garden county – safely distant from the ovine wilderness of Glenroe country.

Built in 1840, the mansion was subdivided into five separate units following the gentry’s belated departure in the 1970s.

Number four is a three-bedroom, three-storey house with 158sq m (1,700sq ft) of living space and a lovely, private garden, for sale by private treaty through Lennox Estates in Bray. It was last on the market in 2001, when Ireland still had its own currency, for £465,000 (€590,550).

The house has since undergone what the agent describes as a major refurbishment but retains oxymoronically “authentic” mock-Tudor period details including mullioned windows and a carved chimney stack.

It might appeal to city folk who dream of escaping to rural Ireland but find the red-in-tooth-and-claw reality utterly disconcerting.

Entry is via a smart gate flanked by granite posts and a drive lined with mature trees. The garden-level ground floor has polished hardwood floors throughout and consists of a large reception hall, a study and a spacious suite comprising a bedroom, bathroom and dressingroom.

A gallery staircase leads to the first-floor living area where an L-shaped sitting/diningroom has 12ft-high ceilings and double-height windows; the kitchen is oak and a pantry doubles as a wine cellar.

The top floor landing leads to another large, en-suite bedroom and a nursery room.

Hollybrook House, Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow

Three-bedroom house with private garden built in 1840.

Agent: Lennox Estates