CO WICKLOW €1.25M:A house on 20 acres by a river comes with a cottage and an old mill building, writes ROSE DOYLE

IT IS rare to find a house as agreeably at home in its surroundings as the Mill House, Ballinameesda, Kilbride, Co Wicklow. This is a cottage that has been much extended with considerable style since it began life in 1880. It sits benignly by the side of the Potters river, at the heart of exotic garden acres overlooked by a bluebell-clad hillside. The house, plant life and the river with its weirs live in a harmony that owes a lot to 22 years of imaginative TLC on the part of the vendors, who are downsizing with some regret now their family has grown.

The Mill House is in fact three houses in one. There’s the main house, with its 243sq m (2,615sq ft) laid out in four bedrooms (two en suite), two reception rooms and a large kitchen/living/dining area. There is the old mill building, now a workshop, with a gallery/showroom, and there is a long, low cottage, all of it set on 20 acres of land and garden. Knight Frank is asking €1.25m.

The kitchen/living/dining area is at the single-storey centre of the Mill House. Comfortably country, the working kitchen has strong green colours, a centre island with a granite top and a Lacanche dual-fuel cooker. The livingroom has a wood-burning stove and the entire area, as with the rest of the house, opens to the gardens and patio. The formal drawingroom faces southwest and, at this time of year, wisteria is in lively bloom by its windows. A white room with deep blue carpet and a blue, wood-burning stove, it opens via French windows on to the garden’s exuberance of lavender, forget-me-not and aquilegia.

Two bedrooms vie for main bedroom status. The first is on the ground floor and the second, overhead, is en suite, coolly white, has windows on two sides and a dressingroom. The remaining bedrooms have a cottagey feel.

The original Mill building is in sturdy condition and has a three-car garage on the ground floor. The top-floor, open-plan gallery, with its kitchenette, toilet and veranda with fire-escape stairs, could easily convert to a living space. The cottage is a work in progress, but would need little work to become a two/three-bedroom home.

About seven miles from Wicklow town, the property might well interest families wanting to share country life together, or a buyer wanting a rental income.

Mill House, Ballinameesda, Kilbride, Co Wicklow. Three houses on 20 acres include the main four-bedroom house, left; the original mill building, now a craft showroom, above; and a guest cottage, below.

Agent: Knight Frank