A seven-bedroom house on 13.5 acres in Co Wicklow has a rich history - and a family of friendly ducks. Peter Murtagh reports

The notice by the side of the driveway - Caution Ducks Crossing - sets the tone for what is about to unfold. Pass the duck pond and go on up the driveway - lined with mature fir trees surely as old as the house itself - and you will find Dromin House, Delgany, quite possibly the finest residential property to come onto the market this season - certainly the finest in north Wicklow.

It is located off the old Delgany Road, accessed off the N11.

Swiftly through the original solid oak front door (held in place by magnificent brass feature hinges) and into the lounge. Peering out across the south lawn, two pairs of mallard, attracted by the call of their owner, waddle past the daffodil walk and up the lawn to the back door.

As they advance in a line, a mother rabbit and her two young slip under the shrubbery. Squirrels are regular visitors too, one is told. The ducks arrive and are fed. They scurry around the feet of their owner, apparently in love. The devotion is reciprocated.

On the far side of the lawn, through a copse of mature broadleaves, its floor sprinkled with a sea of pink cyclamen, the remains of an old walled garden is lined with breeding pens and cold frames. Here used to be an orchard with plum trees, apple trees and beds of fruit canes. It all awaits a new enthusiast.

In one of the pens, bantam hens are playing mum to some duck eggs. The Mallard family is soon to expand it seems. Whether the chicks grow up in the grounds of Dromin remains to be seen. But the current owners are about to flee their nest of nearly 30 years for a new home they plan to build on a site nearby.

What remains - 13.5 acres of delightful rolling lawns, a paddock and enough timber to keep winter fires lighted for 50 years - will be auctioned by Ganly Walters on May 26th. The guide price is €5.5 million and upwards.

This is a home rich in history. Carved out of the original Burnaby Estate, the land first changed hands in 1780. It was sold as a farm. The new owner could not write and the deeds contain his fingerprint as signature.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the property was bought by a Judge Moore who demolished the farmhouse and built Dromin and its two-bedroom gate-lodge. The grounds also contain a coach-house with three bedrooms and a double garage.

Built in 1903, Queen Anne or neo-Jacobean in style, Dromin is not so much a gem as the whole tiara. The walls are made of carved Wicklow granite and Virginia creeper, wisteria and climbing roses run up the front and rear.

The upper part of the exterior walls are clad in red tile. The downstairs windows have cut granite mullions; all the windows are leaded light.

The drawingroom has two fine bay windows (one facing south, the other west) with original stripped pine shutters and settle seats). The diningroom is baronial: it looks out over the south lawn and is currently set for 10. There is yet another fine carved marble fireplace with brass surround. The walls are covered in a rich burgundy coloured cloth creating an atmosphere of opulence.

Off the kitchen, there is a warren of rooms, including a wine store and several pantries, but (hidden potential) a livingroom and a possible bedroom - all of which could be a self-contained apartment.

Upstairs, there are seven bedrooms but it could be nine if a boxroom used for storage and an office (in the granite turret overlooking the driveway) were needed. There are four bath and shower rooms, two of the bathrooms en suite. As with the accommodation near the kitchen area, part of the upstairs could easily be hived off as a separate wing.

There are engaging details everywhere: the original bell pull by the hall door; the brass window handles mounted on filigree-style back plates; the barley twist balustrade with its fat mahogany handrail in the magnificent stairwell; the landing skylights; the Jacobean-style panelled ceiling in the reception hall (not so much a hall, it is a substantial room in its own right with an Adams-style fireplace).

Dromin is in very good order, though inevitably in a property of this size, parts of the house would benefit from decoration.

Crucially for potential buyers, however, is the development potential. This in effect is three separate properties in one and, with 13.5 acres, there is no doubt that careful development is possible without detracting from the main house.