A Victorian-style family home in Meath – on sale for €900,000 – provides a haven for horses, and a noble, if not grand, prospect for those seeking a project
THE AVENUE to Gilliamstown looms ahead on the approach road five minutes from the end of the busy M2. It’s hedge-lined, with a small river running alongside: follow the bend in the road and you take a step back in time.
The Virginia creeper-clad house claims Georgian provenance, and that may well be, but it was likely later gentrified in the Victorian style. This is a handsome but not grand home. Its lifetime has been devoted to noble rather than glamorous pursuits – family rearing and the nurturing of champions.
It was here that renowned jump jockey and trainer Jimmy Brogan brought the famous racehorse L’Escargot after he bought him as a yearling for 950 guineas. And despite Brogan’s untimely death while out riding a year later, his wife, Betty, a well-known figure in Irish racing circles, kept L’Escargot for another two years before selling him on for 3,000 guineas. L’Escargot went on to win two Cheltenham Gold Cups and the Aintree Grand National.
Betty remained at Gilliamstown for the next 35 years, raising four children and keeping horses. Now the house – currently lived in by her daughter Pamela – is for sale through Colliers for €900,000.
The 14-acre setting is idyllic. The gardens are beautiful without being overly fussy; with a profusion of shrubs, mature trees and tended lawns. An enormous spreading chestnut fills a goodly portion of the end of the garden, with an ancient weeping ash standing proudly alongside.
The beginning of the Burley river flows through the garden, as it wends its way along the avenue to eventually join the Nanny river.
On one side of the house is a tennis court and a beech-lined walkway down to larger fields and paddocks. On the other, through a small gap, is a well-stocked vegetable patch.
The heavy front door leads through the small porch to the high-ceilinged hallway, giving way to the left to the drawing room. The walls here are about 20 inches thick, and the original cornicing and ceiling rose remain intact. Shuttered sash windows retain their original glass and French doors lead out to a sunny and spacious terrace that has clearly been well-used down the years. It’s a warm room of comfortable size that has been carefully maintained. Down the hallway to the right is the dining room, another room of good proportions which also boasts original marble fireplaces.
At the end of the hall another door gives way to a booklined walkway, and down a step to the left is a tiny den/study with a small fireplace.
Beamed ceilings add warmth, though what looks like an unused door through to the patio may not be the greatest insulator on cold nights.
A step down and to the right leads to a newer annexe which comprises the kitchen/dining area – just enough space for a good size table and chairs – and beyond that, through a sliding door, is a pantry set around a picture window. The kitchen is traditional in every way – right down to the enormous solid-fuel Aga – extending to about six feet. The area needs modernising, but still has a distinct Irish country kitchen appeal.
Upstairs, the sizeable landing leads to three double bedrooms, all well-proportioned and recently refurbished. Off the master bedroom is a huge en suite including a roll-top bath, a spacious modern shower and a quaintly elevated throne.
A fourth room, currently used as a study, could at a stretch make a tiny nursery or children’s den. A bathroom off the landing needs an overhaul. The outbuildings are extensive, including up to 30 stables, barns and a ramshackle stable and coach house. The new owner will either embrace these as a project, or decide to go back to the drawing board completely.
One of the most striking elements of this house is the view from almost every window out on to paddocks, fields, mature woodland and gardens.
On a sunny summer day Gilliamstown exudes atmosphere. Whoever buys it is buying a slice of country life at its best.
