MONAGHAN €790,000:Escape to the country with this sprawling house and grounds, writes ORNA MULCAHY, Property Editor

AN EARLY Victorian country house set on 29 acres near Ballybay in Co Monaghan has come on the market through joint agents Knight Frank and Gartlan O’Rourke asking €790,000.

Bowelk House, located between Ballybay and Shercock, comes with a walled garden, a mill house with planning permission for apartments, and a derelict cottage and forge. The property is being offered in a number of lots with the house on just under nine acres available at €550,000 and the outbuildings available on various acreages.

Bowelk dates to the 1840s when it was built by the Jacksons, settlers who had come to Monaghan in the 1760s and eventually set up a successful linen mill. By 1819 the family had mills and bleaching greens througout the county, but later as the linen industry waned, Bowelk was converted to a corn mill which closed in the 1950s.

The property passed out of the family in 1921 and has been in the current owner’s family for three generations. The local town of Ballybay expanded considerably in the boom years with a rash of new housing, but little has changed at Bowelk, where the accommodation includes a kitchen and dairy with original stone-flag floors and a series of elegant reception rooms with original fireplaces and tall sash windows with working shutters. There are six bedrooms on two floors and all share a large bathroom with a roll- top bath. The walled garden beside the house has been well maintained and is divided into different sections by box hedging. The property is bounded by mature trees including Douglas and Scotts firs as well as beech, yew and chestnut.

Bowelk House, Ballybay, Co Monaghan

Six-bedroom period house on more than 29 acres including a walled garden and an old mill building.

Agent: Joint agents Knight Frank and Gartlan O’Rourke