A homely cottage with deer friends

CO WICKLOW: €795,000: This remodelled cottage on 41 acres is bright and spacious and has glorious views

CO WICKLOW: €795,000:This remodelled cottage on 41 acres is bright and spacious and has glorious views

WHOEVER buys Glenmacnass Lodge nestling in the valley of Glenmacnass in the Wicklow hills won’t be left wanting for scenery.

The house is set on 41 acres of mixed pasture and woodland with a cascading waterfall nearby, a dramatic landscape and the occasional visiting mountain deer, so the view from the kitchen window is better than most.

Savills is asking €795,000 for the four-bedroom cottage in this remote location, 5kms from Laragh. The original part of the cottage dates back to the 1780s. The current owners bought it as a three-bed, extended cottage in 2004 when it was on the market for €950,000.

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They subsequently renovated and remodelled it into a lodge-style house in 2007. The original part of the cottage has been damp-proofed, insulated and given a new roof.

One side of the property is the old white cottage surrounded by rustic stone walls, while the other side is a new double-height extension.

The cottage is approached by a winding, stonewalled driveway surrounded by tall oak trees. On one side of the house is the Sally Gap, on the other, the entire Glenmacnass Valley with its woodlands and rivers.

The hub of the 223sq m (2,400sq ft) house is the big kitchen in the extended part – a lovely, homely, bright space with a red Aga, Belfast sink and a picture window with views of a waterfall. The wooden floors add to the character and the high, vaulted ceiling gives an airy bright feel to the room.

Also part of the extension is a huge drawingroom with a solid fuel stove and a wooden floor and a high-beamed ceiling space with a piano. It leads to the bedroom wing and the study.

The reception hall is also a substantial space, big enough to double as a study and a library, and it also has a solid fuel stove.

The main bedroom is en suite with a fitted cast-iron bath and a heated towel rail. There’s also a family bathroom

A separate outbuilding was once used as a sauna and a spare bedroom but now needs work.

In the words of the agent, some of the land “might not win the hearts of many farmers” but most of the 41 acres are a mixture of lowland and mountain pasture.

There is lots of surrounding woodland and nearby there’s a mountain glen of some 2,700 acres over which the property has both grazing and turbary (turf-cutting) rights.

Glenmacnass Lodge, Laragh, Co Wicklow

A four-bedroom cottage, in a remote location, which dates back to the 1780s and has been extended and renovated

Agent:Savills

Edel Morgan

Edel Morgan

Edel Morgan is Special Reports Editor of The Irish Times