Carton House and its sprawling demesne are tucked entirely behind a continuous wall on the outskirts of Maynooth. When the old Galway Road ran past it, chances are that a million motorists wondered what was tucked away behind the wall.

The answer is startling. Carton House, upon which two championship standard courses are about to be laid, is a hidden historic treasure. The lands belonged to the Fitzgerald family from 1176. In the early part of the 17th century, William Talbot, then recorder of the city of Dublin, was given a lease of the lands and is thought to have built a house there.

House and lands changed hands several times thereafter before being returned to the Earl of Kildare, who employed Richard Castles to build the magnificent existing house. In 1747, James, the 20th earl of Kildare, married Emily Lennox, a remarkable woman who is responsible for many of the finishing touches which make the estate so distinctive. One of Emily Lennox's 23 children was Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who led the 1798 rebellion.

That Carton had been his home saved the house from arson many years later when republicans were given to such gestures. A butler informed the torchbearers of whose old home they were intending to destroy; discreetly, he neglected to mention the two visits to the house by Queen Victoria and the extraordinary Chinese room on the ground floor which remains as it was when decorated for her.

It is proposed that, with golf, Carton House will breathe again.

The two courses, one designed by Mark O'Meara, the other by Colin Montgomerie (both in association with European Golf Design), will represent not just a considerable attraction to golfers but quite some competition to other courses in the vicinity. Carton's easy accessibility to Dublin city centre, and the almost cloistered peacefulness once you drive through the gates, make it unique. The membership, via a £10,000 debenture, appears to be good value in today's market.

The Carton Estate sprawls over 1,000 acres, through which the river Rye flows picturesquely. The river has been cleverly incorporated into aspects of the O'Meara course, and the par five 14th, with a green guarded by the Rye and a spraying weir and tucked under the knoll upon which the famous shell cottage (home for so long of Marianne Faithful), is bound to become a classic, as is the extraordinarily devious par three which takes golfers back across the river and which offers almost nothing but water by way of fairway.

The estate, which was purchased by Powerscreen Ireland in the 1970s, is now owned by Lee Mallaghan, who, with his son Conor, has developed the resort concept for the place. Partners in the venture will be the Westin Hotel group, currently building a city centre hotel and planning to install one of their quality resort hotels in the demesne. The hotel, tucked discreetly below the level of the treeline, will incorporate a leisure centre, tennis courts, swimming pool and several lodges away from the main building.

Both courses have been planned with the intention of causing the minimum disruption to the environment which makes the demesne so distinctive. The vista in front of the house is protected under planning law and has been left untouched for some acres so that golf doesn't encroach right to the doors of the house.

Work on the courses begins next month, and Carton House will be competing with other great Irish courses early in the new millennium.