West of the M4 and north of Prosperous, on the edge of Donadea Forest Park in the pastoral countryside of Co Kildare, is Dunmurraghill, a stately Georgian-style villa on about 28 acres of pasture and woodland.
The property was built in 2007 to a design by Richard Pierce, now retired, and formerly a principal at Enniskillen-based architectural practice Maxwell Pierce.
The owner loved the resulting home, which he says really suits the site.
“We didn’t want a house that looked new. People visiting say they can’t believe it was built 15 years ago.”
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The Georgian-style villa has all the comforts of a contemporary build including a B2 Ber rating, oil-fired underfloor heating throughout, solid concrete floors on both levels to better radiate the heat, an air-exchange system and even its own generator should the power go down.
But the look and proportions of the property are all Georgian, from large windows washing the rooms in light, 10.5 feet high ceilings and deep door linings and window architraves. “Even the internal walls are all about two feet thick,” he says.
The house opens into a fine tiled entrance hall with a home office to the right. Across the hall is a boot room.
Double doors open directly out to the gardens from the rest of the ground floor rooms, the study, the formal drawing room, the sun room and kitchen which radiate clockwise around the property.
The two main bedrooms have en suite bathrooms. The primary also boasts a dressing room. The other two share a Jack-and-Jill bathroom.
The gardens have been designed by Patrick Bowe and lead to its paddocks, which cover about 18 acres and a further 10 acres of woodlands.
The lands adjoin Donadea Forest Park, which boasts 600 acres of greenery as well as the ruins of Donadea Castle, a small lake covered in water lilies, walking trails and bike routes.
Taking a shortcut through the woods on foot, you can be at the counter in Connolly’s pub in Ballagh in about four minutes, says the owner. The pub also serves food. There are schools in Staplestown, Clane and Prosperous. Dublin is a 40km drive, an off-peak journey time of about 40 minutes.
“It’s such a soothing house to live in,” the owner says. The views from the four bedrooms are sublimely pastoral.
The property, which extends to 390sq m (4,197 sq ft), is seeking €2.3 million through Jordan Auctioneers.
