An historic country estate with a fine Georgian house is on the market for €2.5m. Michael Finlan reports.

The long straight avenue to the front door of Carnelly House in Co Clare leads into the stilled history of that age when genteel ladies sat in their drawingrooms listening for the clop of a mounted horse that announced the arrival of a squirely suitor.

Carnelly is so untouched by change in its 260 years that any of Jane Austen's novels could be filmed there to recreate with perfect authenticity the atmosphere of 18th century country life. The present house - a classically-chiselled Georgian residence whose red bricks invest it with the Queen Anne style - was built around 1744, though the original buildings were put up in the 1600s. The residence, about two miles south of Clarecastle, is the earliest Georgian house in Clare and was designed by Francis Bindon. Carnelly is drenched in history and has associations with such names as O'Brien, French, Rosslewin, Stamer, Vereker, Burton and Joynt.

Owned by the Gleesons, an eminent legal family from Tipperary since 1925, the house is now for sale through Hamilton Osborne King's Cork office. Agent Mark Kelly is guiding in excess of €2.5 million.

One of the original occupants, Major William Stamer, has left an infamous memory in Clare.

Around 1691 he burned down Quin Abbey and chased the monks from it. As a result, local people put a curse on the Stamers decreeing that, for four generations, they would give birth only to sons and the family would become extinct. Apparently that's what happened.

A legend exists that the ghost of Maire Ruadh, an early militant feminist who lived in Leamanagh Castle in the Burren, haunts the tree-lined avenue of Carnelly. She bedded three husbands, and when the second died in battle with the Cromwellians she wouldn't let his corpse into the castle saying she wanted no dead men around her. Instead she married a living Cromwellian officer thus ensuring she could hold onto the castle.

Sometime in the mid 1800s Carnelly was occupied by Peter O'Brien, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, known as "Peter the Packer" for the way he "packed" juries to deliver the verdicts he wanted.

At present, the house is owned by Rosemarie Gleeson whose husband Dermott, a well-known solicitor in Tipperary and Ennis, died a year ago. It had been bought in 1925 by his father, district judge Gleeson. Mrs Gleeson has now put Carnelly on the market, offering in addition to the beautiful house a gatelodge beside the entrance off the N18, and 68 acres of woodland, meadows and garden.

The Fort Field close to the entrance, which contains remains of a Bronze Age dwelling and stone circle, accentuates Carnelly's historic resonances. Resembling the frontispiece of a Jane Austen novel, the house can be viewed from the original entrance gates, sitting importantly amidst a splendour of centuries-old trees, including Irish yews, copper beech, sycamore, oak and the unusual Himalayan cedar.

Limestone steps lead to the splendid Venetian front door opening onto the entrance with a stone arch (dating to the original building of the 1600s) and alcoves on either side.

Surrounding the entrance are an inner hall, a morningroom, a formal diningroom, and a drawingroom. The inner hall with a pitch pine floor leads to the basement, and has a guest toilet beneath the stairs.

The drawingroom is a magnificent artistic creation with ornately decorated panelled walls in which mirrors are embedded, a large open fireplace with tiled hearth and a spectacular stucco ceiling executed by the Francini brothers. What's most striking is a pair of Corinthian pillars commanding a sort of baroque "altar" or tabernacle area, with doors that lead into the conservatory which opens onto the garden.

Upstairs there are seven bedrooms, all of them stately and comfortable, most with elaborate en suite bathrooms and fitted with either marble or cast-iron fireplaces. There is also a rear staircase to the upstairs.

The house has a capacious kitchen, private accommodation and staff quarters.

The gatelodge comprises an entrance hall, sittingroom, kitchen/dining area, and two bedrooms. Outside there's a courtyard with outbuildings, large lawns with shrubs and plants, woodland with walking paths, private well water and a tidal lake.