Escape to idyllic Kildare countryside for €1.5m

The owner of Grangebeg has a photograph of her daughter on a pony in the stable yard at the house. “It was a riding school then, and I took the photo little knowing we’d end up living there.”

Live there they did, and for almost 20 years Grangebeg has been a very happy family home. But having hosted that same daughter’s wedding at the house last July, the family has inevitably become smaller, so they’re now regretfully downsizing.

“I was delighted we were able to do the wedding,” the owner says. “But it needs a young family now.”

With six bedrooms and 383sq m (4,128sq ft) of living space, there’s plenty of accommodation, and the house has those beautifully proportioned formal rooms with lots of light that the Georgians were so good at designing. There’s a country kitchen, complete with Aga too.

The light is one of the owner’s favourite features. “I love my bedroom and the drawing room, which is below it. They have a beautiful bow shape. I wake up in the morning with three Georgian windows facing me, and I’m looking down on the land. It is the most divine place to live,” she says.

In a former life the house operated as a B&B, and with 64 acres and stabling, there’s an option for horse breeding too. “It’s incredibly peaceful here. The garden is beautiful, the birds are singing and the pheasants are running across the avenue,” the owner says, conjuring a very idyllic picture.

Paddy Jordan, who is selling the house with Jordan Town and Country at €1.5 million, adds an interesting snippet of history: back in 1626, the Warren family owned the house and lands, and their grandson took on the surname and arms of Wellesley.

"He was the ancestor of Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington. The duke's mother, Anne, resided in Grangebeg House and is buried at nearby Gilltown Cemetery," Jordan says. Get your wellingtons on and check it out.