There is something wonderfully Italianate about Derrybawn House in Laragh, Co Wicklow. Whoever built the house in the early 1800s clearly wasn't influenced by the formality of other Georgian houses in the county - instead they seem to have looked further afield for inspiration.
The roof has a large overhang in the manner of a Mediterranean villa and a delicate trellised porch with a copper roof frames the modest entrance. The inward opening casement windows are tall, elegant and more usually found in sunnier climates. The green shutters were added sometime later in the same century.
Just outside Laragh village, Derrybawn is for sale by private treaty through Ganly Walters, which is quoting in excess of £2 million (#2.54m).
The house stands at the end of a winding driveway on 95 acres, most of it steep hillside rolling down to 18 acres of parkland. A short stretch of the Glenaloe River which drains the lakes of Glendalough flows through the land. Even the shape of Derrybawn is unusual. It forms three sides of a quadrangle with a courtyard garden in the centre. Inside the front door is a square entrance hall with a black marble chimney-piece; a stone floor, that looks like well-worn Portland, continues into the inner hall.
To the right of that are three reception rooms, the first a formal drawingroom, which opens into a diningroom. A third room now used as a study was probably once a morningroom. All three have very pleasing views over the river and garden as well as original fireplaces, polished wooden floors and delicate cornice work. To the left off the hall is the kitchen, breakfastroom and various utility rooms. The third side of the quadrangle, at ground floor level, is a self-contained one-bedroom apartment.
The present owners bought Derrybawn in 1978 and 11 years later, when their family had grown up and left, they turned the house into an upscale bed and breakfast. Extensive renovations at the time brought the bedroom count to 10, nine with en suites.
The main bedroom is predictably the best bedroom in the house. It is above the drawingroom and so enjoys the same views and proportions and includes an en suite bathroom and a dressingroom. Also upstairs is a games room with a full size snooker table. The apartment was completely refurbished by the owners for their own use three years ago and it was designed to make maximum use of the serene inner courtyard garden. The parkland, which is to the front and side of the house, is dotted with mature specimen trees and is home to visiting deer and wildlife. An ancient wisteria climbs up the entrance porch and the enormous rhododendron which is higher than the house is, according to the owners, the biggest in Europe.
It is the first time in generations that Derrybawn has come on the open market. While currently set up as a bed and breakfast, simply taking the numbers off the bedroom doors would change it back into a very large atmospheric family house.
