Greystones thatch with room to expand for €675,000

A traditional thatched cottage on the busy Bray to Greystones Road, not far from Bray Golf Club, is a quirky property with potential. Rose Cottage, Upper Windgates, Greystones, Co Wicklow, an 83.7sq m (901sq ft) three-bed cottage, is for sale for €675,000 through Keary Estates.

The cottage has an old stables to the rear, off a large sheltered courtyard, and a good-sized sloping garden with views to the Sugar Loaf. Separate outbuildings beside the cottage could possibly be converted to further accommodation, subject to planning permission.

A priority for new owners would probably be to create space to park beside the cottage. At present, the owner parks in a space directly across the road.

The house is a low, wide building with a pale pink exterior, whitewashed stone wall, well-tended thatch and a neatly planted front garden. Inside, it needs extensive renovation to create a modern home. The front porch opens into a wide kitchen cum dining room with a fireplace set into a traditional open hearth.

To the right of the porch is a double bedroom. The kitchen/dining room opens to the left into a small livingroom. Beyond that are two bedrooms, one single and one double, and a shower room.

The pebbled courtyard at the back has raised flowerbeds. Like the lawned garden beside it, it’s sheltered by stone walls and lots of trees and bushes. The roof at the back of the house is galvanised steel.

The stone stables are beside a short flight of steps up to a garden filled with apple trees. The other outbuilding, directly adjacent to the cottage, was once apparently accommodation for farm workers.

The owner, who has lived at Rose Cottage for six years, inherited the house from a friend who grew up there and estimates it’s about 100-150 years old. A picture depicts it as it was in earlier years, when its owners travelled into Bray on a horse-drawn cart.

There is a bus stop nearly across the road from Rose Cottage.