One of the best-known couples in the county set, Prince Azamat Guirey and his wife, Princess Bobo, are selling their Irish home near Dunshaughlin, Co Meath. The couple's principal home is in the Bahamas, where they spend most of the year. They have been making only occasional visits to Ireland in recent years and are obviously hoping to capitalise on the property boom by selling their Irish home at a time when there are relatively few good country houses on the market.
Princess Bobo, an heiress born in Nassau, was previously married to Kevin McClory, who directed several James Bond films.
The Dunshaughlin house, Garrettstown, stands on 48 acres along the Navan/Dublin Road and is expected to make about £1 million when it is auctioned by JacksonStops McCabe on June 17th.
The Guireys paid about £700,000 for the property in 1994 and have since carried out a number of improvements. Even before they bought Garrettstown, it was acknowledged as one of the finest modern houses built in the country in the last 50 years. It incorporates some of the best features of a Georgian mansion and a French chateau. The single-storey house was built 24 years ago along classical lines. It has a central pediment and two projecting wings, which provide an elegant entrance. The central block mainly accommodates the reception and living area. One of the wings is given over to bedrooms and the other wing includes a self-contained apartment. There are five bedrooms, five bathrooms and an office which could be used as an additional bedroom.
Garrettstown was devised by the previous owners, the Jamesons, partly from their experience of period houses and more especially from their admiration for the Gilbey family's famous Chateau Loudenne, in the Medoc wine producing area of France. Drawings for the house were handled by Dublin architect Austin Dunphy.
The entrance hall opens into a superb drawingroom with a screen of Corinthian columns supporting the ceiling. The drawingroom has an Adam-style chimney-piece and looks out over formal gardens to the rolling acres of Meath.
Equally handsome is the morning room, which has Regency-style recessed bookcases. Both the drawingroom and the morning room have concealed doors, one of them to a drinks cupboard, the other to an adjoining room. Another distinctive feature is the octagonal diningroom with soft colours, bamboo decorations and four display alcoves for objets d'art. The curved bows at either end greatly enhance the house. One of these bow-shaped alcoves forms part of a kitchen, which has a wonderful dining area. All the reception rooms open on to a patio the length of the building.
Since buying the house, Princess Bobo has turned one of the bedrooms into a corridor lined with cupboards. It now leads into a new guest bedroom, complete with an en suite bathroom fitted with antique sanitary ware.
The owners have also fitted the house with a sophisticated security system and two electronic gates. All the windows have iron grilles but the installation of ornamental wrought-iron gates on the French doors has clearly taken from the attractiveness of the house. It is still an elegant and stylish house which will appeal to families looking for a country lifestyle.
