Listed Gothic revival home comes with literary links

A listed residence with literary associations has come on the market near Kilcullen, Co Kildare. The Glebe House, at Carnalway, is very much a place apart in terms of atmosphere and period ambience. Dating from 1846, the seven-bedroom home is Gothic revival in style and set on 10 acres, including beautifully manicured lawns and gardens around the house, and nine acres of railed stud divisions in grass. The property is for auction through Andrew J. Nolan, on June 23rd, with a guide price of £650,000-plus.

It was previously the home of several rectors of the local St Patrick's Church, including novelist and playwright George A. Bermingham. The church is itself an architectural gem, featuring stained glass by Harry Clarke and Sir Ninian Comper. The house is also famous as home to the historic Silver Stream, one of the few cars to be developed and assembled in this country. A sweeping tree-lined avenue leads to a gravelled forecourt, with a separate avenue to the stable yard. An open inner courtyard drooping with flowers and featuring a bay tree lies at the centre of the property.

The interior is distinctive throughout, with arched architraves and panelled doors, modelled on Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill house in Twickenham. The spacious entrance hall has pitch pine panelling and a York stone floor.

The two main reception rooms each have French doors leading to a patio, which extends the length of the house and on into the mature garden with its abundance of seasonal plants. The drawingroom has an Adam-style mantelpiece and bay window, while the diningroom has a hardwood floor.

The livingroom has a fireplace with oak surround and the study has built-in bookshelves and a carved oak mantelpiece, as well as French doors leading outside.

The kitchen has built-in cupboards and drawers and an oil-fired Aga and there is a flour room off the back hall. Indeed, the house is full of assorted nooks and crannies, including a laundry/utility room and a cloakroom.

One bedroom is on the ground floor and the other six are upstairs, along with a large attic, accessed by a staircase, and three bathrooms.

The grounds feature a variety of stately trees, such as beech and red cedars, as well as a tennis court and croquet lawn, a kitchen garden and an orchard full of fruit trees. Kilcullen is just over two miles away, and Naas six miles, along with the Curragh racecourse.