Carlow/€1.3m: Michael Parsons visits a country house in Carlow.
Manton House, a late-Georgian five-bedroom residence on almost six acres of riverside grounds situated four miles south of Carlow at Milford in the Barrow Valley, carries an advised minimum value (AMV) of €1 million.
It will be sold at auction by Ganly Walters in Dublin on May 11th.
A separate lot, the two-bedroom Manton Lodge with an AMV of €300,000 on one-third of an acre, adjoins a picturesque water-mill in a setting to rival Constable's The Haywain.
Manton is an attractive, nicely-proportioned country house with a southerly aspect fronted by a renowned example of "Carlow-fence" - the decorative granite-block paling which is a unique feature of the county's heritage and an architectural curiosity found nowhere else in the world.
The location is truly idyllic and that's not the estate agent's purple-tipped quill scribbling. Consider this opinion from a disinterested English visitor:
"The road from Carlow to Leighlinbridge is exceedingly beautiful; noble purple hills rising on either side, and the broad silver Barrow flowing through rich meadows of that astonishing verdure which is only to be seen in this country". The words of Vanity Fair novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray, in 1842. Not much has changed since.
It is no surprise that the house has been home to an artist and a purpose-built studio with a large exhibition area comes with the property - though this could be adapted for other uses.
The main house has a pretty sunroom from which to enjoy gardens which are the stuff of childhood dreams: a private bluebell wood and a nostalgic assortment of trees from fig to quince, juniper to magnolia.
Off a spacious hall are two high-ceilinged reception rooms and a traditional kitchen which opens onto a large patio overlooking an "organic" wild-flower meadow which slopes down to the river. The air permanently hums with the soothing sound of the ultimate water feature - a majestic weir.
More prosaically, there are two pantries, a utility room, a downstairs shower room (always useful for mucky rustics) and, outside, kennels, two garages, sheds and a workshop.
Upstairs, three of the bedrooms have original fireplaces and the main room has a bay-window with Lady of Shalott views.
There is one large bathroom, likely to require updating by new owners, and one of the smaller bedrooms might also be converted to create a second.
Though within the Pale, the journey to Dublin (53 miles) is not quite the "easy commuting" of brochure-speak.
The N9 heads north through increasingly congested Carlow and the dreaded "Khyber Pass" of Castledermot, the bottleneck lair of Pathan warlord-style truckers, before reaching the world's longest building site - also known as the Naas Road (N7).
But with the Kilcullen-Waterford dual-carriageway scheduled for completion in 2009, Manton House is perfectly positioned to provide the best of both worlds - an elegant rural riverside retreat under an hour from the Spire.
If you secretly long to shed the pinstripes and Jimmy Choos for a Barbour and green wellies to enjoy country-life weekends with superior hunting, shooting and fishing; to write - at last! - that simmering AGA Saga novel; dabble in watercolours; or just simply go messing about on the river, then viewing is highly recommended.
