For centuries many of Ireland's great country estates followed the European fashion of breeding doves to hover above the houses and their grounds.
Headfort Estate in Kells, Co Meath, had its own fan-tailed doves which were housed in the main courtyard alongside the Georgian mansion. Luckily, the towering stone dovecote which forms the centrepiece of the yard not only has been preserved but has been tastefully restored and converted into one of the most unusual homes to come on the market in recent years.
Anne Bannon of ReMax Royal County is quoting a guide price of over £275,000 (€349,177) for the two-bedroom mews house which is to be auctioned on October 4th.
Whoever buys the home will have a place of endless curiosity. It is one of 24 mews houses which have been redeveloped in a classical Georgian courtyard. The conversion of the old estate houses, stables, barns, carriage houses and forge, as well as the dovecote, have been both skilful and sympathetic.
The developers, Langville Properties Ltd, have caught the mood and atmosphere of the original courtyard and smartened up the place with natural slate roofs, terracotta tiles, cobble-stones and an impressive parterre garden with playing-card motifs in box hedging.
The dovecote, or pigeon coop as it is affectionately known, opens directly into a stunning circular hall lined with almost 400 stone and brick slots where the doves nested. There is an equally spectacular vaulted brick ceiling with a glass cupola, 40 feet high to give it architectural distinction. An attractive limestone floor in the reception hall also runs into a spacious drawingroom with views on one side across the old courtyard and on the opposite side over a lower courtyard where 24 individual houses have been built around a central raised pool complete with water fountain.
The fireplace in the reception room has an antique beam mantelpiece and limestone corbels. The kitchen/diningroom on the opposite side of the hall has a stylish kitchen with a full range of NEFF electrical appliances. A handy guest toilet is tucked away off the hall.
There is also an eye-catching curved stairs rising from the hall to the first floor. Two exceptionally fine bedrooms at this level have pitch-pine floors and en suite dressing rooms and bathrooms with old-style white sanitary ware and chrome Victorian fittings.
The dovecote has no less than 1,690 sq ft of floor space in all, more than 50 per cent bigger than the typical new home. The fit out is first class with both underfloor and overhead heating on the ground-floor and double-glazed sliding sash windows throughout.
ReMax is quoting £240,000 (€304,737) for another two-bedroom, 1,200 sq ft mews house in the same courtyard.
It is also selling a two-bed home in the Lower Courtyard for £210,000 and a number of three-beds at £240,000.
The homes should be of particular interest to golfers as the price includes life membership of Headfort which has two exceptionally fine 18-hole golf courses, one of them newly developed on part of the huge estate.
