Historic horsey home on 17 acres

Co Cork/ €2.25m: In south Co Dublin, €2.25 million may buy you a handsome Victorian house - but travel south to Fermoy, Co Cork, and roughly the same amount could get you Coole Abbey, an impressive Georgian spread on 17.5 acres.

It comes with a 745sq m (8,000sq ft) recently upgraded four-bedroom house which includes a gym, billiards room, bar and a wine cellar in its accommodation.

As well as that, there's a two-storey guest/staff cottage in a stone courtyard outside, coach-houses, six loose boxes, a workshop and paddocks.

The house is being sold by private treaty through joint agents Michael H Daniels and Colliers Jackson-Stops for €2.25 million. Coole Abbey's style is smart traditional country: downstairs reception rooms and a bookshelf-lined libary, all with wooden floors, open off a staircase hall.

Upstairs, there are plush cream carpets in the bedrooms. Three of the four bedrooms are en suite and there is a dressingroom upstairs too.

The fitted SieMatic kitchen has - of course - an Aga cooker and a utility room arranged as a pantry/store rooms with cupboards and a sink.

Outside are shrubs and rosebeds, paddocks and a walled garden (although it's obvious that Coole is horse heaven - the walled garden is currently a pony paddock.)

The house also comes with a bit of a history - the remains of the original abbey founded in 1296 by a de Burgh and a holy well are at the front of the house, built around 1765.

It was designed by Davis Duckart, also the architect for nearby Castle Hyde estate,

Cork city, 35km away, is just 20 minutes' drive according to agent Michael Daniels. Cork airport is 40 km.

So, anyone up for decentralising to Fermoy?