COUNTRY LIVING:Carrigahilla House, Stradbally, Co Waterford

Six-bedroom country house on 4.5 acres of parkland

Agent: O’Shea, O’Toole Partners

A PART-GEORGIAN Gothic-style 557sq m (6,000sq ft) house on four-and-a-half acres of parkland on the outskirts of the village of Stradbally, Co Waterford, for sale for €1.675 million, has an interesting past.

Carrigahilla House was originally a Georgian house built in 1842. Extended in 1907, it was a convent until the mid-1980s, when it became a guest-house and restaurant and later, a holiday home.

Magazine photographer Colm Henry and his wife, fashion designer-turned-yoga teacher Eily Doolan, bought it in 2005 for €1.2 million as their family home.

They spent another half-million or so refurbishing it in a handsome period style. Now that their three children are getting older, they reckon they won’t need a house as large as this one: it has six en suite bedrooms, a studio and a separate one-bedroom detached cottage currently used as offices.

The property, for sale through O’Shea O’Toole and Partners, has all sorts of potential: Eily, e.g., runs yoga classes in the room that used to be a chapel, which has Gothic-style stained glass windows.

Other accommodation includes a large diningroom, drawingroom, livingroom and a conservatory with a marble-tiled floor; the main bedroom comes with a dressingroom with wardrobes on four sides.

Outside there’s an ornamental pool in landscaped gardens and a large paved patio area.

Stradbally is 40 miles from Waterford city, and 118 from Dublin.