NEWTOWNMOUNTKENNEDY: €6.5M:THE Mount Kennedy estate, a Georgian house on around 170 acres of land near Newtownmountkennedy in Co Wicklow, has had its price cut from €7.75 million to €6.5 million.

The estate went on the market last September, following the death of its owner, Cecil Quinn who was Ireland’s honorary consul in Nigeria.

The sale is being handled by Knight Frank which planned to market it almost exclusively in the UK. Stuart Walker at Knight Frank says he has shown the estate to a number of English parties as to potential Irish buyers.

However, surveys of the property have indicated that it needs a good deal of refurbishment.

“You could spend €2 million on the house” according to Mr Walker.

Mount Kennedy was built by General Robert Cunninghame, commander in chief of the English forces in Ireland and an MP who was later made Lord Rossmore of Monaghan.

He bought the 10,000-acre Mount Kennedy estate in 1769 but it took 17 years to build his ideal house. The two-storey over basement house has a grand entrance hall and a series of beautiful reception rooms with fine plasterwork carried out by Michale Stapleton, a leading stuccadore of Georgian Dublin whose work can be seen on the ceilings of Carton House in Co Kildare and Ely House in Dublin.

It’s a manageable house, with seven bedrooms on the upper floors.

There is an extensive basement with a series of offices and storage rooms leading off a wide hallway with a vaulted ceiling.

The land is laid out in large parcels of paddocks and fields, with extensive frontage onto the N11. Land directly adjoining the estate has been earmarked for an office park and planning permission has been lodged for up to 5,574sq m (60,000sq ft) of office space as well as other facilities.

However, this is the subject of an appeal to the planning board by the National Roads Authority.