Midleton:€2.35m A "Hidden Ireland" country house, once part of the Fota estate, is being sold over 40 years after its owners bought and restored it, writes Frances O'Rourke

"If you've ever had a fantasy about living the high-end Irish country life, complete with historic home and property, and being made to feel part of the country, then Glenview House is for you," wrote one satisfied American customer in a website review earlier this year after a stay in a "Hidden Ireland" country house in Midleton, Co Cork.

Now Glenview House is to be sold and the country house fantasy could be their's - or your's - for good for around €2.35 million.

That's the price joint agents Michael H Daniels and Keane Mahony Smith are asking for this Georgian house on 20 acres of rolling Co Cork countryside which is for sale by private treaty.

Glenview could be bought either as a family home or by someone who wants to continue running it as a guest-house. (It is still open for business at present.) It is big enough - and small enough- to be either.

The 300sq m (3,500sq ft) house has six bedrooms, three en suite, and outside, in a converted coach-house, two self-catering guest cottages.

The reception rooms and main bedrooms all have views of surrounding hills and woodland.

Present owners Ken and Beth Sherrard bought Glenview, originally built in 1780 and once part of the Fota estate, in 1964, when it was in a poor state of repair.

Many of its handsome period details come from Dublin - the front door originally opened into number 16 Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2, a house demolished in the mid-1960s according to the agents.

A fine staircase, pitch pine doors with hand-carved architraves and many of the marble fireplaces were also salvaged from number 16. There is a long driveway up to the house, set in the wooded glen which gives the house its name.

The front door opens into an entrance hall with a marble floor and an archway to a staircase hall. This has a marble fireplace with a cast-iron woodburning stove connected to the central heating. Stairs lead up from here to the first floor and steps down lead to a cocktail bar with French windows opening onto a terrace.

The large drawingroom and diningroom are both bright rooms; the drawingroom has three sash windows overlooking the wooded grounds. Like the entrance hall, they have timber floors.

Outside, there is a grass tennis court and beautifully maintained gardens. One of the self-catering cottages has three bedrooms, and the other has two.

There are also garages and workshops outside. Fifteen acres of pasture are divided into three fenced paddocks a short distance from the house.

The house is 5km from Midleton, and 25km from Cork city.