Jackie Kennedy stayed in Regency style Woodstown House one memorable summer in 1967. The refurbished mansion is now for sale at €3m, writes Kate McMorrow

A fine restored country house in Co Waterford with an intriguing link to one of America's best-loved icons has just come on the market, asking €3 million by private treaty. Joint agents Michael Daniels of Mallow and Shelley & Purcell of Carrick-on-Suir are handling the sale in Ireland, though the property will also be marketed in the UK.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis came to Woodstown House in the summer of 1967, three years after John F Kennedy's assassination and on the run from media attention. She was visited by close friend, David Harlech, and it is believed that the two became lovers that summer at Woodstown.

Almost 40 years later, the mansion is unrecognisable, transformed from a rambling, somewhat shabby mansion to a 632sq m (6,800sq ft) eight-bedroom country house which one might describe as "the height of luxury".

Woodstown is about 10kms from Waterford city and six from Dunmore East, with the long stretch of Woodstown Strand across the road from the entrance gates. The house sits on 29.7 acres of pasture and lawns, with stands of mature beech and oak breaking up the view.

Four guest apartments form the basis of a tourism venture which has been successfully run for a number of years. Two of the apartments could easily be reinstated as part of the main house if necessary. The apartments are occasionally rented to film crews shooting in the area, with actors Julie Walters and Robert Lindsay among previous long-term guests.

The Paine brothers, architects for Dromoland Castle in Co Clare, designed Woodstown House for Lord Carew in 1823. More recent owners have completely revamped the interior at great expense, custom-designing rugs to match ceiling decoration and restoring every period square inch.

An entrance porch with iron trellising and double Georgian doors opens into a parquet-floored hall lit by a tall arched window. Off an inner hall are a proper cloakroom and a formal drawingroom with a blue Wedgewood theme.

The original parquet floor frames a bespoke carpet designed to match the ornate ceiling centre rose. Walls are panelled in blue, edged with white and with white beaded plasterwork at ceiling height. Furniture is grouped around a carved white marble fireplace.

Leading directly off this room is a smaller sittingroom with similar decor. The ballroom-sized pink diningroom has a grey marble fireplace and an arch supported by columns. Rooms off the diningroom include a pantry, toilet and laundry.

At this end of the house, the huge kitchen has limed oak units, an oil-fired Aga and exposed brick and stone walls. Interconnecting doors lead to a dower house and vaulted cellar.

A spacious, almost square, landing has beautifully decorated ceiling work. Off this is a sittingroom with marble fireplace and window seat and four glamorous bedroom suites with touches of luxury. Each bedroom incorporates a full en suite bathroom with heated towel rails, while three of the rooms have open fireplaces.

On the next return are two further double bedrooms, two bathrooms and a separate toilet with antique ware. The dower house can be entered from the house via the rear hall. Three independent apartments, two two-beds and one three-bed apartment, are accessed off the courtyard.

Informal grounds envelop Woodstown House on all sides, with herbaceous borders creating a splash of colour against the walls and mature trees towering over the roof line. Beyond the front lawn is a fenced paddock with separate access to the public road.