Gleaming Wicklow Georgian with guesthouse potential for €2.5m

A meticulously maintained country house on 8.8 acres of varied and beautiful gardens near the village of Newcastle, Co Wicklow, is for sale at a price being asked for smaller properties on lesser grounds in posh Dublin suburbs.

Prospect House, a 716sq m (7,700sq ft) four-bed Georgian with an adjacent but self-contained three-bed guest wing, staff apartment and a recently converted 460sq m (4,956sq ft) three-bedroom coach-house, is on the market through Sotheby’s for €2.5 million.

The property could work as a single family home but it could also be run as an upscale guesthouse, with the guest wing and coach-house for short-term lets. The setting, off a quiet road between Newtownmountkennedy and Newcastle, Co Wicklow, feels idyllic on a sunny June afternoon: the modest Georgian estate sits surrounded by sloping fields with views of distant hills.

To the front, a long field where horses or sheep could graze – with a ha-ha to keep them at bay – stretches away past a large birch tree; to the back, there's a small woodland. At one side of the house is a patio next to a lawn and at the other, a rose garden, vegetable garden, three long interconnecting gardens separated by high hedges and a hidden tennis court. There's plenty of room for new owners who might want to keep horses, says agent David Ashmore.

Freshly decorated

The vendors, who have lived here for 30 years, upgraded bathrooms and kitchens fairly recently and all the accommodation looks freshly decorated. Originally built around 1760, Prospect House was extended in 1820 at the front. Elegant period features include ceilings with simple cornicing, decorative architraves and timber sash windows.

The Georgian front door opens into a large stone-floored reception hall with three tall polished doors (two false) and crowning fanlights. To the left is the drawingroom, with a wide white marble fireplace and French windows out to the patio garden at the side. The even larger dining room on the right is book-lined, like many of the rooms in the house.

A study/library opens off an inner hall on the right; there’s also a wine room in the hall with glass-fronted cabinets. The large modern kitchen/breakfastroom opens to the left, just beyond a large utility room. It’s a smart but comfortable country kitchen, with a long table in the centre, a white Aga, timber units and polished granite countertops. A glazed half-door opens from here to the side patio.

At the rear of the house is a boot room and downstairs toilet and a door to a back courtyard.

The one-bed staff apartment (currently home for a housekeeper and gardener couple) is on the left, as is a wine cellar; a tool room looks from the outside like a cute country cottage and even the doghouse –for Juno, a large German shepherd – seems cosy.

Upstairs, past a tall arched landing window, there are four double bedrooms in the main house, two are en suite. The main bedroom, 10 steps up from the landing, is quite private: a dressingroom leads into the bedroom, which has three deep windows looking over the countryside; the smart en suite is part-tiled and has a shower and bath.

A door on the landing conceals four steps up to another large en suite bedroom. There are two further double bedrooms and a family bathroom. Another door opens into a staircase up to a wide, floored attic.

Guest wing

The three-bedroom mostly timber-floored guest wing, which has a modern kitchen, wide livingroom/diningroom with French doors onto a patio, and upstairs, three bedrooms, is attached to the main house; new owners could create an internal link between here and the main house. There is a separate access from the road.

The coach-house, a short distance from the main house, has been converted to a very modern three-bed property – jokingly referred to as The Shed. Its style is contemporary country: a large modern kitchen opens off a front hall with whitewashed stone walls; the long livingroom, with French windows opening to the front and back of the house, has – like the rest of the house – a limed oak floor.

Upstairs are three bedrooms, the main one en suite and a smart family bathroom. There’s also separate access to this house from the road. Newly laid cobblestones lead up to it beside a small formal garden with box hedging. A number of converted outbuildings include a games room, home office and wine cellar.

Prospect House is a short drive from the N11, and about 15 minutes from the M50.