Former presbytery retains a special spirit and charm

Co Westmeath: €900,000: A former presbytery with a gate lodge which was the holiday home of actor Cyril Cusack and his family for years has come onto the market in Castletown Geoghegan, Co Westmeath.

Sherry FitzGerald Davitt & Davitt is guiding €900,000 in the run-up to auction on June 10th for Vastina House, a six-bedroom Georgian house on seven acres, with the gate lodge and the ruins of the McGeoghegan Castle in the grounds.

The 485 sq m (5,144 sq ft) house was built in the early 1800s and used as a Church of Ireland presbytery until 1886, when it was sold. There are impressive views across beautiful gardens to Castletown village. Picturesque Lough Ennell is two miles from the house, and Mullingar is nine miles away.

Castle Geoghegan is named after the McGeoghegan family, local landowners who were dispossessed at the time of Cromwell. The current owners bought the property in the 1990s and have farmed the land since then.

Vastina House sits easily into the surrounding countryside, sheltered by mature trees and thick hedgerows. While in good condition, new owners will undoubtedly want to put their own stamp on the decor, a pleasurable prospect in a house with such natural charm.

The fanlit front door opens to two airy reception rooms with ceiling coving, picture rails, timber floors and open fireplaces. A rear hall leads to a less formal sitting room with a red brick fireplace. As was traditional, the working end of the house is below stairs at garden level.

Here, there is a large flagged kitchen/dining room with Rayburn range, several pantries and store rooms, two sitting rooms with open fireplaces, an office and a shower room.

All six bedrooms are doubles, some very large indeed, and most have cast-iron fireplaces. A timber-panelled bathroom is also at this level. The gardens are well looked after and mature, with a range of farm outbuildings. Guarding the front entrance is Cyril Cusack's former holiday home, the two-room gate lodge, which is right in the village.

The land is of good quality with extensive road frontage, suggesting future development potential. To locate Vastina House, take the Athlone Road from Mullingar, left at Ballinea, left in Dysart village and continue to Castletown Geoghegan. Left again in the village and the property is on the right approximately 50 yards further on.