A crooked telegraph pole marks the entrance to Gilltown Lodge, a Georgian farmhouse on 30 acres, opposite the Aga Khan's Gilltown Stud, Kilcullen, Co Kildare. After serving 50 years as the home of the Best family, Gilltown Lodge is on the market with a guide price of £1 million-plus.
The lodge and surrounding lands are being auctioned, as an executor sale, by Jordan Town and Country estate agents on July 6th.
Located two miles from Kilcullen village in prime horse-breeding territory, Gilltown Lodge is accessed via a long, fir-lined avenue, which leads to a gravel driveway flanked on either side by manicured gardens and magnificent oak and beech trees. On approach, the facade of this early 19th century home is impressive.
The interior of the house is in need of modernisation. Entrance to the red-carpeted hall is via a porch. To the right is a spacious drawingroom-cum-diningroom with a marble fireplace and a large window with views to the front of the house.
A door to the left of the dining area opens on to a lino-covered back hall with a small lavatory. Off the back hall is a kitchen, which is in need of a major overhaul. It has an Aga cooker. There are two utility rooms and a garage behind the kitchen, the first of which provides access to the greenhouse at the back of the house. All of these rooms are in need of renovation.
To the left of the main entrance is a sunny, airy sittingroom with two large windows and a mahogany fireplace with a gas coal-effect heater.
Upstairs, there are five sizeable bedrooms. One of the two bedrooms off the midlanding has views of the summer garden at the back, which has a pond complete with lilies and cherub and a landscaped garden with irises and lupins. Two apple trees stand on either side of the croquet lawn. Beyond the summer garden is a vegetable garden.
The main bedroom, also on the mid-landing, is very spacious and has a large en suite bathroom, where the only real concession to modernity is the large Jacuzzi and infra-red wall heater.
There are three large bedrooms off the main landing, a walk-in hot-press and a main bathroom with a lovely enamel Victorian bath and a shower unit.
Outside to the right of the house, stands an archway - which local history claims was built for the late Mrs Elizabeth Best when she was a young woman - which leads through to the stables, a large garage and a hay barn. A twobedroom guest cottage to the back of the lodge is also included in the sale.
The agents are marketing the property as suitable for a small stud or equestrian unit.
