A beautifully located country house near Straffan, Co Kildare, has any number of selling points - extensive frontage on to the river Liffey, first class equestrian facilities on 11 acres of paddocks, five bedrooms, lots of space for entertaining - and all within five minutes' drive of the K Club.
Tom Day of Lisney is quoting a guide price of £1.25 million (€1.59m) for River Oaks, a 15year-old house at Castledillon which goes to auction on May 24th.
The house stands in a lovely parkland setting at the end of a tree-lined avenue. It is in apple pie condition, having been continuously upgraded since it was built by the present owners.
Essentially, it is a U-shaped house with the living areas and reception rooms in the centre block and one wing and the bedrooms in the other. It is a practical layout which works well.
River Oaks will probably be bought by a Dublin-based family looking for an alternative lifestyle within easy reach of the city. Straffan is a 17-mile drive from O'Connell Street. The house has the roominess needed in the ideal family home - it has almost 4,000 sq ft of space, not to mention separate living facilities in the stableyard.
There is a welcoming hall with a fireplace, and off it, a studio. Towards the back, there is an inner hall which doubles as a library. One wing of the house is linked to the other by a long garden room with an attractive tiled floor, full-length windows and French doors leading out to a patio and rear garden. The garden room has sliding doors opening into a spacious drawingroom featuring exposed roof trusses and brick fireplaces with raised hearths at either end.
One of the most impressive rooms in the house is the very practical kitchen/breakfastroom which interlinks with a wonderful family room. The double height kitchen has exposed roof trusses and glazed roof windows. There is a four-oven Aga, polished granite worktops everywhere, a double Belfast sink unit and free-standing pine cupboards. The breakfast area opens into a spacious livingroom with large pine fireplace fitted with a gas fire and a picture window overlooking mature grounds.
Three of the bedrooms are on the ground floor and another one is available should the next owners decide to turn the studio into a bedroom.
One of the bedrooms is en suite while the others are located beside the main bathroom. In the same wing, a spiral staircase leads up to the main bedroom suite where there is a dressingroom and bathroom with bath and walk-in shower.
The equestrian facilities are top class. There are six loose boxes, a tack room with overhead loft, reception room and beside it, a double span hay barn. An all-weather arena has also been installed. For those who might consider horse riding too strenuous, the alternative is salmon and trout fishing on a superb stretch of the Liffey less than 100 ft from the back door.
