Portnason House, a handsome, 10-bedroom Georgian house 10 miles from Donegal town and within walking distance of Ballyshannon has everything you could wish for in a country pile.
Set on 12 acres, it comes with a walled orchard, a gate lodge, stables, two private stone piers, a slipway and access to five miles of sandy beach. It is for sale by private treaty through Paul Franklin Associates for £1.5 million.
Backing onto Salt Pan Bay, Portnason House was built in 1750 for the British army when Ballyshannon was a garrison town. It has been a family home and guest-house for some years. Situated off the main N15 Sligo-Donegal road, it is accessed via a 200 metre-long driveway lined with mature sycamore trees. Stone steps lead to the double front door, which opens on to a triple aspect porchway featuring the original tiled floor. The entrance hall has the original local sandstone flag floor. The drawingroom boasts an ornate cornice to ceiling architrave and has double panelled doors leading to the study.
All the bedrooms have en suite bath or shower rooms, mostly with Victorian-style fittings. There are three bedrooms on the ground floor. One, off the rear hall, has triple aspect garden and sea views, a wooden floor and telephone point. The second bedroom, off the rear lobby, has a garden view and the third bedroom overlooks the paddock.
There is a bathroom at mid-landing level. The reading area on the first floor has double doors to a balcony. The main bedroom has loft access and orchard and sea views. The en suite has a Victorian cast-iron, roll-top and claw-feet bath and a tiled floor. There are four bedrooms on this floor.
The basement has three hall areas, two of which have storage and cloak cupboards. There are also two bedrooms with en suite shower rooms, a utility room, a bathroom with a mounted pine medicine cabinet and a family room with vaulted ceiling, flagstone floors and a glazed door to a patio. The kitchen has pine base cupboards, paddock views and an exposed brick chimney breast. There is also a TV room and a storage room with a wine cellar at this level.
The grounds include outbuildings, among them three separate two-storey buildings covering several thousand sq ft. Planning permission has been granted to convert these into eight self-contained, two-storey houses. A freshwater pond on the grounds is supplied by a spring. There are over 1,000 metres of foreshore with salmon and sea trout fishing. A small stable block with accommodation for four horses is fitted with an automatic feeder and a hay rack. The two-bedroom gate lodge is on long-term lease to an elderly tenant.
As Portnason House is regarded as a property of architectural and historical merit, tax relief is available for any upkeep, repair or restoration carried out on the building.
Work carried out in recent years includes rewiring and replumbing and the overhaul of the roof.
