Lakeside home with wild views

CO MAYO: €1.95M:Carrowmore House, Liscarney, Westport, Co Mayo

A LARGE, light-filled house by a lake in the west with wild mountain views, designed by an architect and fitted out by its interior designer owner, is for sale for €1.95 million.

Westport, Co Mayo, auctioneer Gerard O’Toole and his wife, designer Emma Minish, are selling Carramore House at Liscarney, six-and-a-half miles from Westport, five years after they built it. They and their four young children will stay in the Westport area but are considering a new project.

Carramore, a contemporary 550sq m (5,920sq ft) five-bedroom house on 20 acres of rural farmland was designed by Westport architects McCann Scahill to take best advantage of its setting.

A large entrance hallway has a wall of glass overlooking an L-shaped courtyard and there are windows of all shapes and sizes in other rooms. Accommodation is split over two floors, with most bedrooms below so that the living spaces – livingroom, diningroom and so on – get the best views.

There is an office and a studio in a separate but interconnecting wing. Fittings are top drawer: walnut floors, limestone tiling, Poggenpohl kitchen, Italian light fittings and more. There’s high levels of insulation and a geo-thermal heating system backed up by oil-fired central heating.

Outside, there’s a natural forest at the back of the house and the owners have planted 1,000 trees. The house comes with 300m of frontage onto Moher Lough.

The sale is being handled by Helen Cassidy and Tuohy O’Toole, Gerard O’Toole’s auctioneering firm. London-reared with roots in Mayo, he and Minish have lived in the area for nine years, and with businesses in lively Wesport, plan to stay.

Large contemporary architect-designed five-bed 6.5 miles from Westport

Agents:Helen Cassidy/Tuohy O'Toole