Headfort mews homes look like ace deals

The opportunity to buy two-bedroom Georgian mews houses at prices from £210,000 will attract discerning purchasers to an unusual development on what was once one of the great country estates. The 24 mews houses going on sale on Thursday of next week have been adapted from a classical 18th century courtyard at Headfort Demesne, in Kells, Co Meath.

Bookings are also being taken for a further 24 newly built homes in a second courtyard and for seven large detached homes.

Bill Montgomery, of Sothebys International Realty, and local agent John Farrelly are handling sales. The conversion of the old estate houses, stables, barns and forge into ultra-modern homes has been both skilful and sympathetic. The developers have caught the mood and atmosphere of the original courtyard by highlighting the cut-stone facades, the natural slate roofs with terracotta ridge tiles and the painted doors and windows.

A stone dovecote on the south side of the courtyard adds architectural distinction and provides an unusual entrance hall to one of the mews houses. The overall result is a superb mixture of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom homes, many with their own private back gardens.

While the precise selling prices have not yet been set, one-bedroom homes with 723 sq. ft are likely to cost from £150,000. Most of the units are two-bedroom homes with 1,060 sq. ft and these will probably go on the market from around £210,000. For those needing extra space, there will be a number of three-bedroom units with over 1,600 sq. ft, which are likely to be priced in excess of £260,000. In feel, in layout, in atmosphere, it is a truly Georgian courtyard, which is enhanced by the recreation of a parterre garden with playing card symbols in box hedging in keeping with the topiary layout of the gardens of Headfort House, now an exclusive preparatory boarding school. Internally, the homes have been fitted out to the highest specification. They have particularly spacious living rooms, with either French oak floors, terracotta tiles or Portuguese limestone. All of them have open fires, as well as under-floor and overhead electric heating. There is antique pine ceiling beams in some of the living rooms.

The kitchen is designed to make cooking as easy and trouble-free as possible and comes with a full range of Neff electrical appliances. Upstairs, the bedrooms are bright and airy and the main bedroom has a good quality en suite bathroom.

In the largest mews houses, all three bedrooms have en suite bathrooms.

The courtyard houses have a great variety of shapes and sizes - none more so than a former coach-house which has as its entrance hall the beautifully crafted dovecote, with hundreds of internal nesting slots.

Quite a few of the homes have large French doors opening on to rear gardens.

Some of the units will undoubtedly be bought as weekend homes or as an investment, given their location on one of the most stunning woodland and river estates in the country. Many of the homes will have views over an 18-hole golf course recently laid down on gently sloping parkland running down to the Blackwater river. Designed by Christy O'Connor junior, the course will be the Headfort Club's second 18-hole course in Kells. The purchasers of the first 50 homes are to get free admission to the golf club, as well as having the right to fish for trout and salmon on the Blackwater, which runs through the estate.

American-born architect Jane de Roquancouri, who is based in Westport, Co Mayo, has designed the conversion of the courtyard, as well as the other elements of the scheme. Langville Properties, which carried out the work, is controlled by Finbar McLoughlin and Eugene Renehan. The newly developed Lower Courtyard, like the older one, has 12 two-storey stylish homes on either side of a huge reflecting pool. Two-bedroom homes will have 1,589 sq. ft and an expensive fit out in line with the finish provided in the Georgian courtyard.

The new Upper Courtyard on the site of an old orchard has seven large three-bedroom detached homes.

Here, again, prices have not yet been fixed but they are likely to be pitched cost from around £320,000. These homes have a floor area of 1,750 sq. ft and offer a delightful mixture of formality and elegance. There are three lavish reception rooms and a kitchen which doubles as a breakfast room. All three bedrooms have their own en suite bathrooms. Each of the houses has its own private garden. Langville has also begun development work on seven further large-scale individual houses hidden in one of the seven woods on the estate which were previously used for pheasant and duck shooting. The houses are not due to come on the market until later this year and will probably be priced in excess of £400,000.