Former Georgian rectory with walled garden and tennis court near Mullingar for €825,000

The entry for Glebe House on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage describes the 372sq m (4,000sq ft) property as “a highly attractive late Georgian-style rectory which retains its early form and character”. Not a bit of this untrue; it’s really a smashing country house set on 1.6 acres with a courtyard and outbuildings.

The detached three-bay two-storey former rectory was built in 1817 for the Incumbent Vicars of St Thomas at a cost of just over £461, of which just over £415 was a gift, with the remainder coming as a loan from the Board of First Fruits. An institution established by Queen Anne of Britain in 1711 – with the encouragement of Jonathan Swift – the Board of First Fruits was set up to help build and improve glebe houses, and indeed Church of Ireland properties, around Ireland. It is estimated during the boards first 70 years, it assisted in the construction of about 45 glebe houses. But the period from 1791-1803 alone, shortly before the construction of this house, the board supported the building and repairs to 88 churches and 116 houses for the clergy.

In the book Rathaspick and Russagh: A History of the Parish, authors John Tormey and Peter Wallace suggest the house may have links to the dowager Lady Featherston of Ardagh House in Co Longford. There are drawings and sketches online of pew designs for the local church – connected with Glebe House – which Lady Featherston commissioned architect James Rawson Carroll to do.

The five-bedroom ivy-clad pile operated as a B&B before the current owners purchased it and returned it to a family home when they “followed their hearts” and bought the property in 2018 – for €580,000, according to the Property Price Register. They then undertook some significant upgrades during their six years here.

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It now has a new eat-in kitchen that flows seamlessly from a sitting room and serves the formal dining room, where the family have entertained on many occasions. The dining room, with its open fire, is one of four formal reception rooms – along with a library, sitting room and drawing room, which is one of the nicest rooms in the house. Here a feature archway leads to door that opens out on to a patio drenched with morning sun. Many of the larger rooms retain their original shutters, and old quarry tiles in an inner hallway add character and charm.

These old houses always have ancillary rooms, and here they take the form of a plate room, laundry, utility, boiler room and fuel room. Upstairs are five double bedrooms, all of which are of generous size and en suite. The house has a secondary staircase, in addition to the rather grand one in the front hall, which would have been used by staff of old.

Then there are the outbuildings, 1.6 acres of meticulously maintained grounds with a Victorian lawn tennis court and an orchard to keep you supplied with fruits and jam year round. It currently has apple, pear, fig, plum and cherry trees with an abundance of gooseberries, blackcurrants and tayberries.

Though it’s a little early yet, the driveway will soon be lined with a sea of bluebells (once the daffodils have gone to rest for another season) forming a wash of purple underneath mature trees lining the driveway.

Owners converted a floor in the outbuildings in the sunny courtyard behind the house to an office. With two rooms and a loo, it is carpeted, has heating and is wired for fibre-optic broadband. They also installed electric gates, external illumination around the house and along the drive.

It’s more relaxed elegance than overly grand at Glebe House, and it retains some lovely features including an original Kilkenny marble fireplace and lots of decorative coving in formal rooms.

The owners love the peace and tranquillity along with the sun-drenched courtyard to the rear. Though sad to leave, they are downsizing from this lovely spot, which will have you in Liffey Valley in 50 minutes by car, or by train to Dublin in a 1½ hours. For families there’s a primary school about a two-minute walk away.

Ber exempt, Glebe House is now on the market through joint agents Sherry FitzGerald Country Homes and Sherry FitzGerald Davitt & Davitt, seeking €825,000.