Co Tipperary: €2.75m Cooleville, a beautiful Georgian house in the foothills of the Knockmealdowns, will tug the heartstrings of anyone in the market for a country house with equestrian facilities. Kate McMorrow reports
Joint agents HOK Country and Knight Frank are quoting excess €2.75 million for the six-bedroom house, which stands on 90 acres of formal gardens and parkland.
Located in Clogheen, about 14 miles from Clonmel and an hour from Cork airport, Cooleville stands in one of the most fertile regions in the country, synonymous with horse breeding establishments. The current owner, who has bred race-horses on the land for the past 12 years, has created excellent equestrian facilities with well-maintained fenced paddocks, automatic watering and an extensive stableyard.
There is also a pretty stone cottage, a staff flat and a gate lodge. Cooleville's first residents, the Grubb family, owned the mill to the west of the house which now stands as a picturesque ruin. A more recent previous owner was the late Edward Sackville-West, 5th Lord Sackville, writer and music critic, who added on the gothic conservatory in 1963. Beautifully proportioned, the main house has everything necessary for a comfortable family home. The three-storey house is approached along a gravelled driveway with a circular turning area to the west of the house.
Off the entrance hall is a panelled library with a carved chimneypiece. The diningroom opens to a large domed conservatory with access to the formal south garden. There is also a drawingroom, elegantly decorated in traditional style, with cornicing, polished wood floor and carved chimneypiece. Another carved fireplace is in the diningroom, which has views over the garden and beyond.
To the rear is the kitchen/breakfastroom with a solid fuel Aga and range of appliances. There is also a pantry, a larder and a study with fireplace. Upstairs, the main bedroom suite includes a walk-in dressing area and full en suite bathroom with panelled bath. Two further bedrooms have en suite bathrooms, while two separate bathrooms serve three stand-alone bedrooms.
The basement area houses a laundry room, wine cellar, linen room, potting shed and five store rooms. By the entrance gates is a three-bedroom thatched gate lodge. The two-bedroom stone cottage and adjacent one-bedroom flat are at the northern end of the restored stableyard.
The latter contains 15 loose boxes, an old coach house and a tack room, all in perfect condition. These have automatic watering and extensive loft space for hay and straw storage. To the west of the stables is an impressive walled garden with manicured box hedges, an orchard, raised beds and another potting shed.A stream runs along the northern boundary and there is a second entrance from the main road on the southern boundary. The formal gardens are mainly in lawn, with specimen trees, shrubberies and a sheltering yew hedge.
