Navan: €5m Bachelor's Lodge will make the perfect family home, despite its name, says Robert O'Byrne
Despite its name, Bachelor's Lodge shouldn't be thought to be only suitable for singletons. Indeed, since 1880 the house has been a happy home to five generations of the same family: the current owner's great-grandfather first leasing and subsequently buying the property outright.
Less than 6kms from Navan and conveniently located between the N3 and the River Blackwater, Bachelor's Lodge, together with some 190 acres of surrounding land, is being offered for sale by private treaty through joint agents HOK Country and Smith Harrington with a guide of €5 million-plus.
No one seems quite sure about how the place acquired its distinctive name. On a map of 1805, it already has the monicker, along with the townland title Scallionstown.
Two-hundred years ago, the estate appears to have been jointly owned by absentee landlord the Earl of Essex and Lord Henry FitzGerald, son of the first Duke of Leinster and brother of Lord Edward. The main house dates back further, to the third decade of the 18th century and was probably built by a previous Earl of Essex as a hunting lodge.
Its three-bay, two-storey front is deceptively modest, the property's substantial interior proportions only indicated by a semi-circular window piercing the central eaves pediment.
The original entrance doorway is now concealed behind a late-19th century porch. This leads to a particularly handsome hall with a Tuscan order staircase climbing three storeys.
All the principal rooms seem to have been reordered in the Victorian era when the present plate glass windows and marble chimneypieces were installed, although the panelled doors and plaster cornice in the drawingroom look to be from the 1760s.
There are a number of more recent but sympathetic extensions to the rear, containing the present kitchen and various storage and utility rooms.
Upstairs, spread over two floors, are eight large bedrooms and two bathrooms; the next owner will no doubt wish to reconfigure this arrangement but want to keep the charming cast-iron chimneypieces found everywhere upstairs. At the back, the main yard holds a long range of single- and two-storey slate-roofed stone buildings with doors and windows edged in brick. Beyond them lie two further yards. For many years Bachelor's Lodge was a stud farm but during the past decade it has been run as an equestrian centre, hence the old walled garden has been turned into an all-weather sand arena and abundant stables. But this business does not intrude on the character of the house or its immediate grounds: those to the front conclude in a protective shelter of mature trees.
The long avenue leading from the N3 begins with fine gates and a recently restored and extended two-bedroom lodge. Ideally, after changing hands, Bachelor's Lodge will continue to be a family home because that seems to suit it best. Unless he's contemplating imminent marriage, the place is certainly much too large for a bachelor.
