€460,000 for castle once home of Iseult Gonne

LARAGH Castle, a castellated house on nine acres in Laragh, Co Wicklow, once the home of Iseult Gonne and her husband, writer Francis Stuart (pictured), is for sale at €460,000. It was last sold in 1961, when the O’Kelly family bought it from Stuart.

The house was severely damaged in a fire earlier this year, and the grounds are neglected. Agent John Doyle of HJ Byrne Company is handling the sale.

The property was built around 1803 as a military barracks to contain rebel activity in Wicklow, a few years before the Military Road was built. At the back of the house there is still a high-walled prisoners’ yard.

Inside, it’s not a large house, despite its impressive-looking towers: it is 198sq m (2,131sq ft) and accommodation consists of a high-ceilinged drawingroom, a study at the foot of the tower, diningroom, kitchen, and three main rooms upstairs.

A stone arch and high gates open into a private avenue leading up to the house, hidden among Scots pine, beech, ash and birch trees. Its hidden setting and interesting history could appeal to somebody with enough money to do the extensive work needed to make it habitable again.

A mining company bought the barracks in the 1820s and turned it into a residence; a century later, in 1928, Maud Gonne McBride bought it for her daughter Iseult and Stuart.

The German spy Hermann Goertz stayed there briefly after parachuting into Ireland in 1940, but left shortly before it was raided by gardai. Iseult died in the early 1950s, and Stuart, below, sold it in 1961.

Laragh Castle is close to the Old Schoolhouse and former tea rooms in Laragh featured in Property a few weeks ago.