Boyzone's Stephen Gately is selling his Co Wicklow home, a restored mill house in a romantic setting in Newtownmountkennedy. Sherry FitzGerald is quoting a guide price of £450,000-plus for the rambling two-bedroom house, which stands on about two acres of grounds on the outskirts of the village. It goes to auction on July 26th. Mill House is set at the end of a long driveway behind high electronically controlled gates. The entrance is shared by a second house, Mill Cottage, which is just inside the gates. Mill House is further in and is completely hidden from view both from the road and its neighbour. Most of its grounds run alongside the driveway but there is also a walled and terraced garden rising up behind the house, as well as a wide, deck-style patio, an enclosed gravelled garden in front of the house, and a narrow lawn running alongside the stream.
The 200-year-old property was in poor condition when the pop star bought it in 1998. Since then, it has been totally refurbished by a team of builders, landscape designers and paint effect specialists. There is still plenty of scope to extend the house, with an annex partially restored and suitable for conversion to a guest or staff flat. Painted a striking mottled red on the outside, Mill House has around 2,200 sq ft of living space. Inside it has the just-finished look of a showhouse. It is decorated and furnished in a rustic Gothic style, with timber floors, exposed brick walls in several rooms and sloping pine ceilings in the upstairs bedrooms.
The iron-studded front door opens into a light-filled hallway with a stone-effect tiled floor.
To the left is the livingroom - a striking double height room with a vaulted timber ceiling, and a minstrels gallery leading off the upstairs landing. This room looks out on enclosed gardens on both sides. One tall window is a single pane of reinforced glass overlooking a timber deck where a stand alone hammock has pride of place.
The other door off the hall leads to a big, country style kitchen, with French doors opening on to the deck, and a dining area surrounded by windows. The working kitchen has a full range of timber units built in a wide U-shape around a Stanley range.
Beside the kitchen is a formal diningroom, off which is a lobby leading to a bathroom. Upstairs, the gallery over the livingroom is currently used as a study but could be another bedroom. The guest bedroom is a pretty room with dormer windows framing views of the trees all around the property. There is a shower room next door. The main bedroom is larger and leads on through a dressing area, with floor to ceiling wardrobes, to a luxuriously fitted bathroom.
Security surveillance cameras are in operation throughout the house and grounds. The fairy tale setting is enhanced by the ruins attached to the house. Thanks to clever landscaping, the garden is like a series of outdoor rooms enclosed by mellow stone walls engulfed in ivy.
