A €5m five-bedroom Edwardian house is renovated and ready to move into, writes Orna Mulcahy, Property Editor
KNOCKRANNY, ON Rocky Valley Drive in Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, is a house made for Christmas. A handsome Edwardian home surrounded by 3.9 acres of grounds sheltered by the Sugar Loaf, it's got the lofty proportions necessary to take a really big Christmas tree, and plenty of space for entertaining.
The five-bedroom house is for sale by private treaty through Lennox Estates at €5 million. It's in immaculate condition so new owners could move straight in without further expense.
The current owners renovated the house from top-to-bottom in 2008, replacing all 38 windows, installing a superb Chalon kitchen complete with Aga, and landscaping the grounds, the driveway and the coachyard.
The three-storey house dates from 1912, when it was built by an Austrian professor at Trinity College Dublin to exacting plans that the owners inherited. What's interesting is that Knockranny has had virtually no extensions or additions, with the exception of a utility room at the back.
The original layout of the 400sq m (4,305sq ft) house is extremely user-friendly, with a hallway that is both wide and long off the three reception rooms - a large drawingroom with windows on three sides, a central diningroom with double doors opening from the hall, and a sittingroom that opens through folding glass doors to the kitchen.
All three reception rooms have narrow glazed doors leading out to a red-tiled verandah running across the back of the house, overlooking a lawn and the Sugar Loaf beyond.
An elegant staircase leads to the first floor where the main bedroom suite occupies one side of the house, complete with a large bathroom and walk-in dressingroom.
There are two further bedrooms and a large bathroom on this floor, as well as a staircase leading to the attic floor which has two small bedrooms, a shower room and a large study with lofty views over the property's impressive Douglas fir trees, which provide a regular supply of timber to fireplaces throughout the house, some of them designed by Hicks.
The grounds include a formal garden, woodland, old tennis court and greenhouses. The original coach-house has been partially refurbished and is used as a gym.
