Ballyknockan House is, says its owner Beverly Doyle, “perfect for a family with a couple of horses”, and she should know, as the description matches her own family when they bought the old Wicklow farmhouse on nine acres 11 years ago.
The previous owners – a family with five children – were emigrating and had put the house on the market.
“I’d always wondered about this house,” says Beverly. “I saw it every year because it was on our route to the Tinahely Show; it’s back from the road but you could spot it through the trees and then in 2008 there was a for sale sign on it.”
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It was good timing. Beverly and her husband, Bobby, had just sold up in Wicklow and were renting while house-hunting in the county. In March 2009 they moved in to Ballyknockan House with three of their five children who were still living at home. Now those three have grown up and gone, Bobby hit retirement age this year and the couple, anticipating that the house and land will likely prove too much in the coming years, are planning to downsize, intending to build a smaller house on land they own locally.
Ballyknockan House in Rathdrum – not to be confused with the better-known Ballyknocken House & Cookery School in nearby Glenealy – was built in the 1890s so it’s Victorian with many interior features intact such as polished floorboards, sash windows and shutters.
The Doyles did the usual things on moving in – redecorated throughout, upgraded the family bathroom and the country-style kitchen and built on a large utility room – but they also embarked on a larger project, restoring the cut stone outbuildings at the side of the house. Now there’s a large enclosed courtyard – “it’s a sun trap and it’s also lovely to look at from the house” – with four stables, a log house, hay loft and a one-bed apartment. The latter conversion was prompted some years ago by the return of a son from abroad.
‘Hobby farmers’
As they keep sheep – “We’re hobby farmers,” says Beverly – they also built extensive fencing on the land which had been otherwise open to create paddocks for the horses and safe grazing for the sheep.
The house, says Beverly, is not as large on the inside as it looks from its imposing position at the end of a long driveway. Spread over 256sq m/2,756sq ft, there are three good-sized doubles upstairs – a fourth room is also used by the family as a bedroom. Downstairs, there are three reception rooms – a dining room and living room to the front of the house, plus a larger family room built by the previous owners to the rear – as well as a good-sized eat-in kitchen, utility room and guest toilet. The family bathroom has been smartly decorated to suit the age and style of the house with half tongue and groove walls and a roll top bath with ball and claw feet.
Ballyknockan House is located about 3.5km from Rathdrum and is for sale through McDonnell Properties, seeking €1.5 million.
