A €2.8m mini-estate in Co Wicklow, within commuting distance of Dublin, will test the country homes market

A COUNTRY house with just enough land to be private; just the right amount of space to have friends and family to stay but not get in the way; and more than enough trees to provide a constant supply of logs to the several fireplaces. Such a house is Whaley Abbey in Co Wicklow, on the market through Knight Frank at €2.8 million.

Whaley Abbey stands in the middle of its 23 acres of level land, just outside the village of Ballinaclash. It’s a long low house, built by the Whaley family on land said to have been granted by Henry VIII. The infamous Buck Whaley was the family’s undoing, gambling his way through a fortune and dying young and penniless. His name lives on in a Leeson Street nightclub.

The land was once the site of an abbey, called Ballyhine. One of the outbuildings has the outline of church windows high in a gable wall. An old bell, that may have called locals to prayer, has been preserved on the property.

Whaley Abbey’s Canadian owners came to Ireland in 1998 intending to stay for just “a few years” and Whaley Abbey has benefited greatly from their tenure, they leave behind a house maintained and decorated with a good deal of flair and grounds imaginatively landscaped to include a miniature lake teeming with trout.

The property is reached through electronically controlled gates opening to a driveway that winds past paddocks, lawn and lake to the front of the house. A magnificent rhododendron is just coming into flower beside the house, while numerous rare and unusual trees flourish on the land. To one side of the house is a sheltered lawn, on the other a secret garden designed for contemplation.

Inside the house there’s a grand hallway with a formal reception room on either side – to the left a dramatic red diningroom, to the right an imposing drawingroom with a wide bay window that takes a grand piano.

At the end of the hall, the house branches out in two directions, via a wide, sunny corridor. On one side you’ll find a guest bedroom that snoozes in the afternoon sun – it has its own conservatory – along with the main bedroom, and a fabulous Victorian-style bathroom with the bath centre stage. Also in this part of the house is a cinema with its leather armchairs, pull-down screen, and foam baffled walls to improve the sound. There are other rooms too – a loft bedroom and a meditation room. At the other end of the corridor is a gorgeous country kitchen, complete with Aga, a cosy panelled sittingroom, utility room and office, and a handsome staircase leading to the three upstairs bedrooms, all of which are en suite.

The courtyard buildings include a small cottage with a sauna, perfectly installed by the Finnish father of one of the owners. There is a second larger cottage, with three bedrooms and a large workshop cum kitchen. Behind this courtyard is the original farmyard which has separate access from a side road. Its several whitewashed buildings include stables and a loft. There is also a vast cattle shed, left from Whaley Abbey’s days as a working farm.