The owner of Tornant House in Dunlavin, Co Wicklow, spent years scouring the MyHome website before the house of her dreams appeared. “I really fell in love with it and it was hard not to buy it,” she says of the charming country home in the Wicklow countryside.
She must now return to the United States for work, so she has placed the house on the market through estate agent Knight Frank. The owner spent €905,000 on the five-bedroom house, according to the Property Price Register, dated September last year.
It’s a charming spot and easy to see how one could fall for it. There is a lovely air about the place, which is at the end of a cypress-lined avenue and surrounded by 2.75 hectares (just under 7 acres) of land. The house has been standing for about 200 years.
Tornant House is on a slightly elevated site with views to the rolling hills and valleys below, and the land is laid out as gardens and railed paddocks. It takes its name from the surrounding townland, as does the nearby Tornant Moate, an Irish National Monument composed of a ringfort and barrows.
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The heart of this peaceful home is the kitchen, which has high-end appliance and a pantry, allowing it to be clutter free. It also has a separate utility, allowing further storage in the 286sq m (3,046sq ft) property.
It retains many period features, such as Victorian tiling in the front hallway, old fireplaces and pitch-pine flooring. It has an air of relaxed elegance rather than a formal feel to it; a place where you kick off your shoes, curl up in front of a fire and get lost for days in a good book. The formal livingroom or study is a perfect spot for this, as it has a large open fire for winter nights. An adjacent livingroom has a stove, and from here the space opens into a diningroom, where French doors lead out to a patio for summer entertaining against the backdrop of tall trees and surrounding hills.
There is a fine conservatory to the rear to catch the sun on summer evenings.
There are five bedrooms on the first floor, all a good size, especially the principal, which is opposite a lovely family bathroom of very generous proportions.
There’s buckets of room outside, including ample space for a pony or two, and the property has lovely old cut-stone stables and railed paddocks for those wishing to pursue equine interests.
Water sports are close to hand at Blessington Lakes, while there is golf at Rathsallagh, and the Curragh and Punchestown nearby for horse racing.
The owner will miss the serenity and charm of the place and says her five-year-old nephew refers to the place as “magic” – and he’s not wrong. Her charming house, with a Ber of C1, is on the market through estate agent Knight Frank, seeking €950,000.
