Co Louth: €2.4mA Co Louth family is selling the house that's been their home for over 150 years. Robert O'Byrnereports

BACK in 1992, the St George Smiths held a party to celebrate 150 years' residence at Piperstown House in Co Louth, with guests encouraged to come in period costume. Now, a decade and a half later, they are marking a very different but equally momentous occasion: their departure from the house for the first time since it was built in 1842.

The original owner, Henry St George Smith, was a prosperous Victorian merchant - Drogheda is only a few miles from the house - and like his father before him had 14 children.

This explains why Piperstown has eight bedrooms although, in keeping with the times, there was only one bathroom; in the 19th century, servants would have spent a lot of time ferrying jugs of hot water from the basement to the top floor.

Whoever succeeds the St George Smiths will almost certainly want to alter the present arrangement and fortunately, the house's internal layout would facilitate such work, allowing the creation of a number of self-contained suites each with its own bedroom, bathroom and dressingroom.

As is so often the case in properties of this vintage, the best bedrooms are to the front of the five-bay house which faces due east; on this level, it offers views of the Irish Sea a mere three miles distant.

With high ceilings and their original fireplaces, all the rooms are of a good size and open onto a large landing from which descends the house's main staircase.

In the late 19th century, a top-lit extension was added at the return; this currently holds various bathrooms and lavatories and a swimming pool installed in what had been the billiard room.

The ground floor's main reception rooms are generously proportioned and high-ceilinged, and have good cornices and chimneypieces.

Thanks to their recessed and shuttered sash windows, they're also extremely bright. The drawing and diningrooms lie to the front, with a morningroom and - in what was originally the study - a kitchen to the rear.

Piperstown's old kitchen, complete with Aga, is in the basement, which contains plenty of other big rooms that could be used for a wide variety of purposes.

And there is a whole range of outbuildings to the back of the house also ripe for conversion.

Entered through a charming stone archway, the walled courtyard holds three cobbled coach-houses, a workshop, tack room and boiler room and overhead loft.

Beyond these is a now overgrown tennis court which in turn leads to the big south-facing walled garden, its old glasshouses, though rather dilapidated, still containing a vine.

It is possible to gain access to the front of the house from the walled garden and to admire the spacious lawn and mature planting of trees.

These include chestnut and beeches as well as an abundance of rhododendron that runs the length of the main avenue, on one side of which lies a maze waiting to be rediscovered.

Piperstown comes with 30 acres that includes the fields lying immediately left and right of the avenue and provide the property with additional privacy.

Knight Frank Ganly Walters expects the property to make around €2.4 million at auction on July 19th.

Buy now, and your descendants will be able to celebrate the purchase in 150 years' time.