Co Kilkenny €820,000:If the 10-mile road between the lovely Kilkenny riverside villages of Thomastown and Graiguenamanagh were in France, it would be hailed as "une route pittoresque" of national importance. Here it is known as the R703.

"Rush-hour" involves Joe Haire dashing over to Thomastown to open his pharmacy or a couple of stable-lads en route to the stud at Mount Juliet.

"Gridlock" means an SUV-driving Gummy Mummy (a Yummy in wellies) encountering a tractor with a faulty indicator at Coppenagh crossroads.

You wouldn't bat an eyelid if a decidedly comely Tess of the D'Urbervilles strolled past carrying a three-legged stool and a wooden pail on her way to the milking parlour.

Yet this bucolic wonderland, in the shadow of Brandon Hill, is less than two hours from Dante's fourth Circle of Hell, the Red Cow Roundabout.

And Dublin is about to get a whole lot closer next year with the opening of the Carlow bypass, the first stage of the Dublin-Waterford M9 motorway.

For now though, one of the country's loveliest stretches of countryside, bordered by the serene sister-rivers Nore and Barrow, remains little-known and largely unspoilt.

Lying off the "main" road, about equidistant from both villages, is the 19th century Tykerlevan Farmhouse & Lodge, preserved and restored by architect, Clodagh Nolan.

The private treaty asking price for 214sq m (2,300sq ft) of living/working space on three-quarters of an acre is €820,000 and the joint agents are Ganly Walters, Dublin and P N O'Gorman of New Ross, Co Wexford.

There is unlikely to be a house with more enthralling inland views on the market this - or any other - year.

The farmhouse, entered through a half-door (the latest HiCo "must-have"), has three bedrooms, bathroom, shower room, limestone-floored bespoke kitchen and a livingroom (formerly the cow byre) with double-height ceiling, cast-iron solid fuel antique stove and French windows leading to a south-west facing decked terrace.

The walls throughout have painted timber sheeting, the windows are prettily shuttered and the overall look is what you'd expect to find in an elegant Swedish country retreat.

A studio, with dual access from the main house and its own separate entrance, has a shower room, sleeping space and is plumbed and wired for a small kitchen.

Here is the perfect home office for that new business you've been dreaming of launching or the ideal spot to pitch your easel!

The Lodge, a former milking parlour, is a self-contained unit with its own entrance and separate deck to the rear.

It contains an open-plan kitchen with walnut shelving, another double-height livingroom with polished timber floor, a large bedroom, a bathroom with contemporary fittings and a loft area for an office or guest bedroom.

The site is surrounded by mature trees and has oodles of gravelled parking space.

By the entrance gates there is a roofless stone outhouse to which a mezzanine terrace has been cleverly added.

Having shivered through a typically chilly St Patrick's bank holiday you may dismiss talk of global warming as old baloney. But Ms Nolan has, with admirable foresight, sown some olive trees beside the house.

If forecasts prove correct, your grandchildren may be able to enjoy properly garnished Martinis from the terrace at Tykerlevan 50 years hence.

They'll watch the Kilkenny sunset, sigh at the grandeur of Co Carlow's Blackstairs on the far horizon, and think, who needs Provence?