WICKLOW: €2.65 MILLIONThe owners of Oaklands House – which was burned out in the 1920s – have built a house of Georgian proportions with mod cons
TO RESTORE or not to restore? That was the question facing the owners of a ruined Georgian mansion, when they bought it in 1995. Burned out in the 1920s, only parts of three walls remained, although the old coach house and stable yards were still intact.
It was the shape and scale of these stables and barns that provided the key – a modern house just would not have looked right in context, and so, working with Louis Burke architects, they set to work recreating Oaklands House, along the lines of the original.
So what do you get when you marry Georgian proportions with all mod cons? The answer is a comfortable family home that can rise to the challenge of a grand entrance and offers formal rooms for entertaining, but which also has cosy domestic spaces and a blissfully relaxed atmosphere.
Colliers International is now asking €2.65 million for Oaklands House.
The original 18th-century occupants might have thought of a laundry chute (saves time carrying your linens downstairs), but the integrated vacuum cleaner is a thoroughly modern innovation. Similarly, a reconditioned oil-fired Aga is the warm heart of the kitchen, but there is also a high-tech oven and hob, built-in fridge, plus a kitchen island and all the counter and storage space any contemporary cook or chef could wish for.
The first-floor rooms are laid out symmetrically, so two huge en suite bedrooms have stunning views to the front, with a pair of smaller bedrooms (also en suite) to the rear. There is also a large first-floor terrace behind the house for sheltered evening sun.
Oaklands is fundamentally a family home. The present owners have grown-up children and are moving back to Dublin’s city centre, just 40 minutes away. It’s an idyllic spot for kids – you could lose teenagers for hours in the attic games room, which has its own sound proofing, while outside there are 62 acres to have adventures in. The land is currently let on short lease to a farmer, but there are quad-bike and horse-riding trails, a lane down to the Blessington Sailing Club, and several golf courses in the immediate vicinity. Walk up the hill behind the house and a view to both Russborough House and Tulfarris House rewards you.
Stroll back along the lane and take off your wellies in the boot room before wandering through the kitchen for tea, or something stronger, in the south-facing sunroom. Some of the original stone slabs from one of the barns has been laid as a patio in front of the sunroom, and you can still see the pits and grooves carved into them, created for drainage, and to stop the animals losing their footing. The view from here is across a rose garden and orchard, and beyond the mature oaks, beeches and sycamore trees that line the avenue, to the lake and Wicklow Mountains beyond.
Behind the house, there is also a three-bedroomed coach house (in need of a little TLC), plus further outbuildings, stables and two large newly-built barns.
One of these is currently home to a collection of cars, but could easily be converted to American-style barn stabling and, as this part of Ireland is in the heart of horse country and close to the Curragh, the attractions for horse lovers are obvious.
Inside and out, there is a mix and match of the old and the new.
The granite window sills came from an old convent, and the massive corbels from a monastery. Yet the windows themselves are a labour-saving, if not terribly authentic PVC. An architectural historian would, no doubt, charge around the house picking out anachronisms, but there are enough reclaimed and salvaged touches to take any sharp newness away from the way the house actually feels. The walls are comfortingly thick, and the antique pitch pine of the doors and shutters came from timber-lined docks in the UK. So, while Oaklands House isn’t exactly old, it’s not entirely new either, and for a family with deep enough pockets looking to live in what has to be one of the most beautiful spots in Ireland, it just might provide the very best of both worlds.
Oaklands House, Blessington, Co Wicklow
Description: House on 62 acres with stable yards
Agent: Colliers International
