Formerly a lord's lovenest, Attymon House is a restored manor on 78 acres guiding €2.5 million. Michael Finlan reports
Many of Ireland's country homes harbour intimate secrets of romantic liaisons and love affairs and indeed some of them were built as enduring tributes to a loved one. Kylemore Abbey in Connemara and Mount Falcon in Ballina are cases in point.
So, too, is Attymon House in Co Galway which was transformed by the lord of the manor from a hunting lodge into a stunning Georgian house as a home for his mistress, the daughter of a local shepherd. The house is set in the midst of broad rolling pasturelands close to those lonely fields of Athenry that inspired the famous song. Nearby also is Attymon railway station on the Galway-Dublin line, featured in The Quiet Man movie, and still in use.
The hunting lodge that became Attymon House was owned by the Dalys, a family of landlords headed by Lord Dunsandle who presided over a vast area of land in the middle of Galway. Dunsandle's son, George Daly, fell in love with Mary Broadwell, the shepherd's daughter, and took her as his mistress in a liaison that proved long and fruitful and culminated in a presumed happy ending when they married.
In the years before they were officially wed, Mary Broadwell had 12 children by her lover - all were reared in Attymon House. As soon as he began his relationship with the shepherd's daughter, Daly converted the hunting lodge into a beautiful Georgian-style home and installed his mistress there to bring up their children. Eventually the pair were wed and began to live as a married couple in Attymon House, where they had a further two children.
Built in the 1840s, the house, which is one of the handsomest country homes to be found anywhere in Ireland, has had a succession of different owners and undergone all sorts of vicissitudes over the years.
At one time a member of the English royal family, distantly connected to the present Queen, lived there discreetly and eccentrically with her husband. For the past 10 years it has been owned by an eminent American attorney, James J Coleman, now in his nineties, and his artist wife Dorothy. With great love and meticulous care, they have restored it to its original elegant state, sparing no money or effort in the process.
More than that, the Colemans extended the demesne surrounding the mansion by buying an adjoining farm and now there are some 78 acres of undulating pastures and fields enfolding Attymon House, with venerable broadleaf trees all around, lovely gardens, bridle paths and an orchard. The rear of the mansion looks across a seemingly limitless expanse of farmland adorned with a small lake in a hollow with an island in the middle. It is a classical Georgian jewel set in the Athenry countryside that causes passersby to stop in admiration when first glimpsed from the main road. This splendid residence is now being put up for sale by private treaty, with a guide price around €2.5 million. The sale is being handled by Sotheby's in association with Montgomery Ganly Walters, Dublin.
The property is located approximately midway between Ballinasloe and Galway city, about 10 miles north of Loughrea on the N6 Dublin to Galway Road. It has easy access to Galway city some 15 miles away and the Galway-Dublin train stops at Attymon village. Because of its connections with The Quiet Man the railway station is a popular tourist attraction.
Attymon House is in superb decorative order having been so lovingly maintained and enhanced by its present owners over the past decade. Apart from the aesthetically pleasing vista they present, the grounds have great practical value providing excellent grazing land that is well drained and laid out in a number of good-sized paddocks.
The gardens are extensive and have been developed with ease of maintenance in mind. There are lawns front and back of the house and around the entrance is a gravel forecourt edged with rose beds.
On the eastern side of the house there's a fine orchard that blends into the rear lawns where the small man-made lake nestles in a hollow. A miniature decorative cottage has been built on the little island in the lake and a mini golf course for children has been laid out on the surrounding lawns. Most of the land is in permanent pasture with a section adjoining a turf bog left as a habitat for native flora and fauna.
The house is a sumptuously comfortable place in which to live, with stylish rooms, most looking out on the countryside, marble fireplaces, underfloor heating and large period windows. There are four reception rooms, including a spacious drawingroom and a diningroom adorned with a beautiful chandelier. The four bedrooms are en suite and each has its own individual design; in one, a study is attached.
One of the marvellous attractions of the house is the converted coach-house at the rear, a lovely cut-stone building now made up of a reception room, two bedrooms and bathrooms and an expansive studio upstairs with a panoramic window looking over the fields of Athenry - a dream place for an artist.
Other buildings include the stable block with three stables, a large garage, tackroom and implement shed. At the western end of the estate stands Brogan's cottage, named after the family that owned it, an old thatched cottage restored to its original state.
