Chocolate-box Kildare cottage on an acre in need of further TLC for €195,000

Within the current market there is a section of people living in Dublin looking to sell up and ride off into the sunset in favour of more land and more affordable accommodation options.

River Cottage, a chocolate-box pretty, cut-stone cottage at a fork in the road that is on the border of Counties Kildare and Laois, offers a lot to those those looking within Dublin’s commuter belt.

Brought to market by Coonan Property it is being sold by online auction on Thursday, June 17th, at 3pm. With an AMV of €195,000, it offers someone with the additional funds to complete the project the chance to create something really special.

Set on about an acre of lands that belonged to a family friend of Anthony Ryan, of husband and wife landscape architects Hayes Ryan, the couple have rehabilitated the property from the outside in, and started by landscaping it in a style seen in rural cottages of this kind.

The firm, which has won multiple gold medals at Bloom, most recently in 2019, when it was last staged, has planted about 50 semi-mature trees in the kind of clusters that you see on such homesteads instead of in a more formal, linear fashion. These will soften its look and also shield the house from traffic noise from the Athy bypass, where construction is soon to start and will improve on the current commute time to Dublin of about 60 minutes; it is about 3km to the nearest shops, at Athy. It will also screen off traffic noise from the Athy to Kilkenny road, which is just a couple of hundreds of metres from the abode and give the triangular-shaped property more privacy.

There is ornamental flowering crab apple, snowberry and evergreen lonicera hedging as well as a full landscaping plan drafted that could be executed from about €10,000, Ryan estimates. He also repointed the stone bridge on the property where there are now steps down to a stream that runs through it.

In the house, he installed timber screens in the window that resemble traditional four-pane sash windows, but these don’t open. He cleaned and reinstated its Bangor blue slate roof, adding roof lights to bring in more natural light inside.

The property extends to about 45sq m (484sq ft) and is set out as two rooms with vaulted, tongue-and-groove panelled ceilings and rough, lime-rendered walls, opening into the room with fireplace (pictured).

But the house has no heating or electrics. Both of these need to be installed. Neither does it have water, so it is not habitable, despite the beguiling appearance.

The property is coming to market with full planning permission for a 60sq m extension and the plans, drafted by Hayes Ryan, will give you a chance to marry contemporary with traditional in a lushly planted fashion.