A former Church of Ireland rectory on six acres, about 40 miles from Dublin in the Co Kildare town of Monasterevin, is expected to fetch over £1 million at auction on 10th October next.

Kildare agent Jordan is handling the sale of the detached four/five-bedroom house, which dates from 1882 and has the Gothic-style arched doorways and ornate brickwork typical of late Victorian architecture.

Although close to the centre of the town, Kilrue House is invisible from the road behind thick hedges and at the end of a long tree-lined drive.

The land has road frontage on two sides and is zoned residential, suggesting that the paddocks furthest from the house could be developed, subject to planning permission, without loss of privacy. A brick stable and tackroom building with good roof space has potential for conversion to guest accommodation.

The house has been renovated over the past 12 years by the present owners, who have reroofed, and installed new timber windows. New ceilings were also installed and the owners commissioned replica cornicing and centre-pieces from the Old Mould Company in Dun Laoghaire.

A new owner will need to add finishing touches and decorate some of the rooms. It is a large, rambling house of just under 5,000 sq ft and would accommodate an expanding family with room to spare. A tiled porch opens directly into a room-sized inner hallway with all the downstairs rooms opening off. A baronial-style mahogany and pine staircase leads to a galleried landing overlooking the entrance hall. A back stairs is tucked between the family room and the kitchen.

Off to the right, there is a bright bay-windowed sittingroom, unfortunately still in a raw unfinished state and without a fireplace. Folding doors connect with a diningroom/study with carved pine mantlepiece and cornicing. A large family room across the hall with a bay window and unusual arched recesses would make a fine diningroom.

The kitchen and general working area of the house is to the back, opening on to a paved terrace and the walled garden. The owners have created a huge country-style kitchen, with custom-made limed oak units, granite worktops, an Aga in a brick recess and African slate floor tiles. The family dining end of this room has a pine floor which came from the Rotunda Hospital.

A corridor off the kitchen leads to a laundry room, shelved pantry and guest lavatory. Above this is a large timber-floored games room, which would also do duty as a home office. The four bedrooms off the main landing are all large doubles with fitted cupboards. The principle bedroom has a separate dressingroom and an en suite shower room. The family bathroom is converted from a single bedroom.

The gardens, although large, are divided by old brick walls and hedgerows into separate landscaped areas. There is a half-acre lawn surrounded by eight-ft-high walls and a summer garden massed with herbaceous plants and climbers, with brick walks and a rose-covered gazebo. Next to this, the winter garden is designed for late colour, with several types of Japanese maple, bamboo and beech trees. There are two loose boxes, a store workshop and fuel store. The rest of the land is laid out in two paddocks.