Allen House in Co Kildare is beautifully situated on an expanse of 4.04 hectares (10 acres), beside the canal at Pluckerstown, under the fabled Hill of Allen. It is at the centre of a triangle of towns that comprises Naas, Newbridge and Kildare.
Although the setting is utterly tranquil and serene, it’s no more than a 15-minute drive to decent shopping amenities, schools and train stations.
Built in 2008 by the current owners, keen equestrians who bred show horses in quite a unique way by raising them wholly outside, the 420sq m (4,520sq ft) house has been designed with entertaining in mind.
A gravel drive sweeps around to the front of the house and its formal entrance. A double-height entrance hall is lit by rooflights, the floor is engineered oak with geothermal heating system underneath. The Ber is B1.
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Off the hallway lies a cloakroom, a guest WC and wide, Georgian-style doors that open into a spacious, elegant drawingroom with a Carrara marble fireplace, bespoke ceiling mouldings and handcrafted French doors that open on to a south-facing patio with flagstones sourced from a dairy in Cavan.
A hallway leading to the bedroom wing is visually softened by curving walls and a deep bay window. Two double bedrooms are connected by a bathroom which has polished Jura limestone walls and mosaic tiling.
But it’s the main bedroom at the end of the hall that steals the show, a big room with plenty of windows, a high vaulted ceiling and a gas fire that will instantly comfort the most frozen of riders on a winter’s day. The accompanying en suite is equally as luxurious with a deeply sunken Jacuzzi bath surrounded by marble tile, a travertine floor and double hand basins.
There’s a well-placed laundry room off this hall too. At the other end of the hall is a vast kitchen/living/dining space, warmed on one side by a fire with an elaborate copper hood and on the other by a four-oven Aga.
Double-height and facing south, the kitchen is floored in limestone tiles and has doors opening on to a suntrap patio; the heart of the kitchen is a huge island topped in granite. Clever touches include a double Franke sink and a dishwasher at eye level.
Beyond the kitchen is a suite of rooms that forms the engine of the house: a back kitchen, with plenty of presses, appliances and granite worktops; an office; another guest bathroom; stairs that lead to an upstairs room with an en suite; and, at the end of the house, a fully-equipped tack room that cleverly has its own washing machine.
Back in the entrance hall and following the handcrafted staircase that leads upstairs, the owners used tumbled Travertine tile on this level which bounces the light flowing in from the eight-pane roof light around.
An office lies off the landing and double doors open into a sumptuous guest bedroom, with a sitting area and a Juliet balcony overlooking the garden.
Above the bedroom wing is a long, large attic room with plenty of Velux windows, it could serve all kinds of uses from a playroom to a teenage den or games room.
Finally on this floor there is a mezzanine that could make a lovely library or study, it overlooks the kitchen.
There are three paddocks at Allen House, a garage and two stables with rubber matting. The large paddocks at the back of the house have an open-sided shed so horses can stay outside during the winter.
The gardens to the front and rear of the house are mature, well-tended, laid out in lawn and beech and whitethorn hedging, with a profusion of birds and pheasants roaming the grounds.
Now downsizing, the owners will keenly miss the tranquillity and haven of peace they created and enjoyed here and have placed the house on the market with Coonan Property, seeking €1.35 million.
