WITH VIEWS across Cashel Bay and a backdrop of the Twelve Pins mountains, Annilaun Lodge in Connemara, Co Galway, is a five-bedroom house on an acre of landscaped gardens within walking distance of two four-star hotels.
It is for sale through Colliers Jackson-Stops for €1.35 million. Built 10 years ago by the current owners in a period style, it has high ceilings, sash windows, and an antique fireplace in the sittingroom. It also has modern conveniences like underfloor heating.
There is a handsome Georgian-style black-and-white tiled entrance hall; the diningroom is country-cottage style with an Aga, a dresser and a tiled floor.
The sittingroom has a polished oak floor and an antique marble chimneypiece. As well as the kitchen and a large dining area, there's a laundry room and a boot room, both with tiled floors and a central heating boiler.
An en suite downstairs bedroom could be used as a reception room.
Upstairs there are four en suite bedrooms; the main one has a dressingroom and fitted wardrobes. The house is in a wooded setting surrounded by gardens overlooking Cashel Bay with mature shrubs, herbaceous borders and trees interspersed with walkways. It's next to the Zetland country house hotel, and not far from Cashel House, the hotel where the late French president Charles de Gaulle stayed on a trip to Ireland in the 1960s. Annilaun Lodge is seven miles from Roundstone, and 12 from Clifden.