Looking over the lough from a literary home

An 18th century house where Edna O'Brien wrote The Country Girls has a €4m guide. Anne Dempsey reports

Lake Park, near Roundwood, Co Wicklow, is an 18th century house set in 110 acres of spectacular scenery overlooking Lough Dan. Ganly Walters is seeking offers of €4 million plus in a private treaty sale.

Built on an elevated site overlooking the lake in the late 1770s, the property has 500 yards of private frontage onto the lake. The five-bedroom house been extensively remodelled by its current owners to create an edgily stylish home where modern eclectic touches blend with period features.

Edna O'Brien lived there when she was when writing her best-seller The Country Girls. Later the poet Richard Murphy lived there for a considerable period, and fitted much of the oak flooring throughout. The Lake Park forests provided a stunning backdrop for Excalibur, filmed on location there in 1981.

The present owners, a family with literary and show business connections, bought the house in the late 1980s and have upgraded it considerably - particularly by creating a large kitchen/living area which capitalises on the pleasure afforded by a large inner courtyard.

Lake Park is situated two miles from Roundwood village, 30 miles from Dublin city. Its location coupled with the size and scenic beauty of the estate makes this a special property and the current owners have been caring conservators of its treasury of ancient oak and beechwood.

A long straight entrance avenue bound by oak and sycamore with pasture on either side sets the tone. The house is painted a soft pink with window frames, shutters and slender pillars picked out in sky blue. The entrance hall flagged in stone, has a striking period fireplace and is furnished with large sofas piled high with cushions and throws and a tall marble hall stand. Standing in the hall your eye is drawn through a rear window to the courtyard outside.

A large low-ceilinged drawing- room decorated in shades of cream has a large front window with deep sill, a Gothic side window and period marble fireplace. The diningroom, painted a mellow orange takes a vast dining table in its stride. A television room has a stone fireplace.

The single-storey kitchen and living area has a vaulted ceiling and runs the width of the house. Perfect for a large family and informal entertaining, the working section, designed by Kilkenny furniture maker Clive Nunn, has a comprehensive selection of custom-made floor and wall units in oak.

There is a large refectory table in the centre of the room and arched patio doors to the garden. The living area has a fireplace in redbrick with French limestone mantelpiece, easy chairs, and a recessed window area furnished with bookshelves. Off the kitchen is a utility room with tiled floor and separate walk-in shelved pantry.

Doors lead from the kitchen through a cool outdoor lobby tiled in red out to the courtyard. The cobblestones have been sown over with grass, creating an inner garden surrounded by a rectangle of two-storey accommodation comprising storehouses, barns, bedroom spaces and offices, some unused.

From one corner of the courtyard, steep stone steps lead up to an office suite with a small hall, two rooms and a small bathroom.

Upstairs in the main house there are five bedrooms and a family bathroom panelled in blue with a white suite. First floor refurbishment has been underway for some time, with plumbing in situ for a second bathroom, and two bedrooms ready for en suites. The 110-acre estate is divided into five acres of gardens around the house, 35 acres of grassland with the remainder set in woods and amenity land.

The area at the front and side of the house has space for a dozen cars. From the hall door the front lawn stretches away with forest and mountain views. A large walled garden to the side of the house has been cleared for future landscaping or development.

The entire estate is accessible and green roads and grassy paths lead from the house to woods and parkland supporting deer, fox, badger and mink. A few moments walk down one woodland path brings you to one of the many viewing points overlooking Lough Dan.

Ahead is sky and massed green trees of oak, beech, sycamore, Scots pine. Below is the lake stretching away on either side as far as the eye can see.