Eadestown House, on the road between Naas and Blessington in Co Kildare, is a magnificent country residence dating from the late 18th century. Exact dates were hard to pin down for the current owners, who bought the four-storey renovated Georgian home in the mid 1990s, until a priest came to their door one day with a record of an ancestor married from the house in 1790.
A local builder rescued the 371sq m (4,000sq ft) Ber-exempt property from near dereliction a few years before they acquired it – when he started work, cows were ambling through the kitchen.
By the time he completed the renovation it won an RIAI award and the owners, who lived locally at the time in a new-build, loved the house and the grounds so much they decided to buy it.
Electric gates open on to a curving drive flanked by horse chestnut trees in full flower that lead to the house; granite steps lead to the front door, painted a cherry red. The entrance hall is dramatic, with a curving staircase and a superb arched window that spans three of the four floors and looks out on to the garden.
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Two reception rooms lie off the hall. The drawingroom on the right is a sunny yellow, with reclaimed pitch-pine floors and a Victorian marble fireplace.
The diningroom on the other side of the hall is a deep red, has a matching marble fireplace and, like the drawingroom, is dual aspect. The 12-over-12 sash windows are all double glazed and both rooms have elaborate cornicing.
Most of the family living took place at ground level and this is still the case for the owners, who are downsizing. The heart of this level is the kitchen, a large room, with hand-built country-style cabinets, resolute timber beams, an island, a Stanley stove and a terracotta tiled floor.
A hall opens off the kitchen with a door leading outside. There is a utility room in what would have been the scullery and a long, narrow guest WC.
There’s a comfortable, cosy livingroom with French oak floors and an open fire, and beyond it a lovely sunroom that has the original tiles salvaged from the kitchen as its floor. The rear of the house faces southwest, so this room is always warm and bright.
Upstairs there are five bedrooms over two floors with three double bedrooms, all en suite on the first floor along with a generous family bathroom. The main bedroom has an en suite and a dressing area. During the renovation, windows were added to the final, fourth floor, and this means the vast attic has been turned into two more bedrooms, and there is a bathroom too.
[ Refined home on more than two acres near Kildare townOpens in new window ]
The accommodation does not end here, with more to explore past the manicured gardens, studded with mature trees and completed by a round, circular pond that attracts all kinds of local wildlife.
The house comes with a stable yard and a separate lodge. There are five boxes in the stables, and across the yard the renovated lodge, in need of some updating, but in fine structural condition, with a C3 Ber. It has a large kitchen, a sittingroom and upstairs there are three bedrooms, two of which are en suite. It could be used for staff accommodation or as a rental as it has its own separate entrance on to the road.
The sale is being handled by Jordan Auctioneers, seeking €1.6 million for the property on 31 acres. It is also being offered as separate lots with the house and gardens, stables and lodges on 10 acres seeking €1.3 million and the second lot of 21 acres of agricultural land seeking €300,000. It’s hard to imagine a prospective buyer with an equestrian interest passing up the opportunity to acquire the land at Eadestown house, given it is laid out primarily in paddocks and for grazing.
