Highfield House, as the name suggests, sits on an elevated site on the pretty Mill Road in Wicklow, close to the famed Meeting of the Waters confluence in Avoca. Although its setting may be completely sylvan, it’s close to Rathdrum, with its schools, shops and train station.
The owners bought the five-bed, three-bath house two years ago and undertook a complete remodel and renovation, building a new extension to the rear that now houses the beautiful kitchen. They also redid the roof in the conservatory.
The owners are moving to be closer to family, and it’s clear that the house – with its sweeping views over the Wicklow Mountains – completely captured their hearts in the time they lived here.
The house comes to the market with Sherry FitzGerald in pristine, turnkey condition, seeking €650,000. It would make a wonderful family home, with spacious reception rooms, five bedrooms and extensive gardens, with an area of 181sq m (1,948sq ft) and a Ber of C2.
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A long drive bisects the extensive gardens, planted with azaleas and rhododendrons, and the front door opens on to a smart tiled hallway, with the formal drawingroom to the right.
It’s a sumptuously decorated room, with highly polished oak timber floors and dual-aspect windows; the adjoining conservatory floods the room with light. A wood-burning stove is set into a marble stone surround.
On the far side of the hall lies another large, long, dual-aspect room with an informal family room to the front and a De Barra kitchen which features a Quooker tap, a Neff combi-oven and an island unit with seating. It also has large rooflights over a seating area to the back, with doors opening on to a paved terrace, perfect for al fresco dining. There’s a double pantry unit with the signature oak interiors De Barra are known for, keeping the kitchen neat and streamlined.
A self-contained suite of accommodation comprising an office, a double bedroom, a bathroom and a small kitchen lies to the left of the ground floor. With its own entrance, at the side of the house, it could serve a variety of purposes, from a home office suite to au pair accommodation or a granny flat.
This beautifully decorated home continues to impress on the first floor; the owner wanted luxurious bathrooms and achieved her goal with no expense spared on superior bathroom fittings and tiling.
The four bedrooms, three of which are doubles, are decorated in serene shades of grey, while the principal bedroom is in a calm lilac.
The gardens extend to an acre, with multiple terraces and seating areas around the house, and beside the conservatory, and a large paved terrace at the rear of the house off the kitchen extension allows for all kinds of entertaining.
The owners did a lot of planting, adding to the old apple trees that were once part of the orchard the house is built on, and putting in a summer house that makes the most of the views as far as Glenmalure.
“We used the summer house a lot,” says the owner. “You can hear the river, the Avonbeg, from the gardens. It was a beautiful place to sit, winter and summer.”
It is one of many outside buildings, with a stone-built shed that could be used as a gym or artist’s studio, garden sheds and a block-built boiler house with laundry room.
There’s a local shop down the road in Ballinaclash, and Rathdrum is a seven-minute drive away. Arklow, with supermarkets, a shopping centre and second-level schools, is a 12-minute drive away.
