A pleasant prospect for pheasant

Want to live the life of a country squire? A 260-acre estate in Co Meath with a period house could be for you

A 260-ACRE country estate in Co Meath with the potential to be developed as a pheasant shooting facility has come on the market through Dunboyne estate agent JS Fox. Ginnetts Park is located about one mile from Summerhill village and is within 45 minutes drive of Dublin.

Agent Joe Fox is seeking between €2.8 and €2.9 million for the farm and a substantial period house which is nicely located in the centre of the land. The two-storey house has not been occupied for at least five years and will require considerable upgrading. It has four impressive reception rooms including a large library with double doors linking it to an equally spacious drawingroom. The library still has the original parquet flooring and white marble fireplace while the drawingroom has a hardwood floor and an equally attractive fireplace. While all the reception rooms have large, elegant windows to capitalise on the landscape, unfortunately a previous owner replaced the sash windows with modern PVC windows which clearly look out of place in a fine period house. New owners will undoubtedly want to use one of the reception rooms as a kitchen to replace the cramped kitchen off the entrance hallway.

Upstairs there are five good- sized bedrooms, three of them with ensuite bathrooms which would benefit from a face lift. The bedrooms at the front of the house have delightful views over the rich Meath farmlands towards the spire 0f Dangan Catholic Church.

Like many period houses, Ginnetts was modified and extended to meet the needs of the various owners. 0ne of them added a wing to accommodate the steward on the estate. It has a further three bedrooms, a bathroom, sittingroom and kitchen.

Ginnetts was built as a dower house for the adjoining Dangan Castle, the birthplace of the Duke of Wellington and once one of the largest estates in Meath. The ruined castle now stands on the opposite side of the Trim-Summerhill road and is currently for sale along with 165 acres. James Meagher, of Dublin agents HT Meagher 0’Reilly, is handling this sale and is quoting in excess of €10,000 per acre for the land

0f the 260 acres in Ginnetts Park, around 110 acres are in pasture and paddocks while the remainder are in woodlands planted by German owners in the past 30 years. There is an interesting mixture of lime trees, sycamore, ash and beech to provide good cover for pheasants should future owners decide to use the estate for shooting.

The current owners are three brothers who bought Ginnetts Park on 560 acres about five years ago. They have since divided the estate in two.

Ginnetts Park, like many other farms along the newly realigned road between Trim and Kilcock, has a handsome cut-stone entrance. Meath Co Council spent a small fortune on providing cut-stone walls and pillars for most of the landowners along the entire new route. That was in the Celtic Tiger years when money was plentiful and council officials thought the good times were here to stay.

Ginnetts Park, Summerhill, Co Meath

Substantial farm with five-bedroom house plus extra stewart’s accommodation

Agent:JS Fox