Baroness says goodbye to much-loved home

A baroness who settled in County Sligo is selling what is probably the most interesting portfolio of properties in the country. Her story is right out of a Hans Christian Andersen tale, with tragedy and courage in equal measure.

Baroness Elizabeth Mincer - Anny to everyone - arrived at Heathfield House on New Year's day, 1990. The Victorian house near Ballymote was intended as a retreat where she could recover from the prolonged illness and death of her late husband, a Polish baron.

Anyone expecting a frosty aristocratic demeanour will receive a surprise on meeting Anny. The blonde, bubbly Liverpudlian is a trained Royal Ballet dancer, who has performed in cabaret and theatres across the UK. She counts dancer Wayne Sleep among her closest friends.

Almost 12 years on, Anny is about to embark on another venture, this time a chateau in Vichy, France, where she plans to run courses in the arts. She has put Heathfield House on the market with Carrick-on-Shannon estate agent Sherry FitzGerald Farrell.

She is also selling a fully restored Georgian house at nearby Coolaney and a two-acre site with a derelict stone cottage.

The Victorian and Georgian houses - now completely restored and with six and two acres respectively of wooded gardens - are perfect examples of how well modern comforts can blend into a period environment.

"I saw Heathfield House advertised in Tatler magazine for £65,000 sterling as somewhere you should "dash your cash" and I flew over immediately to see it," says Anny.

"When I walked up the drive, it blew my mind. I was always told you shouldn't show emotion when you're buying property, but I felt like crying, it was so beautiful.

"The German lady and her son gave me tea and walked me around the gardens - it was like meeting Hansel and Gretel.

"The rooms were candlelit and there was turf burning in the fireplace."

The first snow for years blocked the drive when Anny arrived with her furniture and a neighbouring farmer had to pull it up to the house on a tractor, piece by piece.

She decided to spend money on the important things like rewiring and bringing the plumbing up to date. Rotting floorboards were replaced, the roof secured and windows rebuilt exactly as the originals, making sure to replace the original glass which "moves with the light".

Victorian furniture found in the Paris flea market and London's Lotts Road perfectly suited the character of the house.

A new owner can buy these if they wish, says Anny.

Society portrait painter Edward Bell, who later became Anny's fiancΘ, added his own artistic interpretation to the restoration of Heathfield.

The sittingroom and diningroom are pure Victoriana. Walls have been painted deep rose, the fireplace has hand-painted tiles and a tea inglenook has been created in the window bay.

Original combed pine doors and deliberately uneven plaster emphasise the old-fashioned look.

There is a study off the front hall and a warren of rooms at the back incorporating a genuine Victorian kitchen and butler's pantry fitted with double Belfast sinks.

Off the first landing is a flower arranging room and a bathroom with brass taps, high cistern and tasselled light pulls.

In contrast to the downstairs rooms, the five bedrooms are in cool creamy colours, with themes reminiscent of medieval England, Italy and France. Floorboards and walls in the "Florence" bedroom were painted by Edward Bell in a gold and terracotta geometric pattern.

Another bedroom has an "Elizabethan walk" - three steps between Gothic pillars leading to a door to the Florentine room.

The ceiling in the panelled main bedroom is painted with clouds and an antique cot draped with muslin was installed for Anny's two-year-old grandson Thomas.

Part of the landing has been curtained off to enclose a prie-dieu, by a window looking out on the garden.

Lisheen House, Anny's latest project, is a pretty Georgian residence which she restored from scratch.

There are old pine floors, inglenook fireplaces and hand-crafted timber window frames. Everything has been thought of, down to brass accessories and silk lamp wiring.

Leaving Sligo will be a wrench for the baroness, whose cheerful down-to-earth personality has endeared her to the locals.

"I've become best friends with the wives of the craftsmen I employed and Mae Mullen next door doesn't want me ever to leave.

"Restoring the house took 10 years and the time whizzed by. My children, Susy and Jeremy, came over for holidays and Jeremy, who is an artist, has settled in Carrick-on-Shannon.

"They understand now I'm not a complete lunatic for coming here."

Heathfield House, on six acres, is for sale for £250,000 (317,430) and Lisheen House is £225,000 (285,690), through Sherry FitzGerald Farrell of Carrick-on Shannon. The ruin on two acres costs £12,000 (15,240).