An eight-bed property in Birr, Co Offaly, home to Presentation Brothers for nearly 120 years (from 1878 to 1997), became a family home when a couple bought it five years ago. “We got married in 2012 and bought it in 2013 – we knew we could do something with it,” says one of the owners.
The Monastery on Moorpark Street is a 418sq m (4,500sq ft) three-storey eight-bedroom Georgian house, dating from 1800. It had not been in use as a family home since the early 1800s ,when it was built by a family named Hackett. The new owners’ renovations included rewiring and re-plumbing the house, installing a zoned central heating system and insulation and repairing the original sash windows. They also converted a chapel in an extension at the rear into a 12-seat cinema with plush red seats from a cinema in Belfast; there’s a games room beside it.
The Birr Town Record of Protected Structures says “the striking detached house and later monastery retains its original elegance through the survival of much original fabric...”
The couple had been living near Birr for a while, and found that locals welcomed their refurbishment of the 18th century close to the town centre. They are now moving for work reasons. The property they bought for €190,000 in 2013 is for sale "for offers over €425,000" through Donal Boyd Auctioneers. Although a family home now, it has clear potential as a guesthouse.
The front door, with its original Georgian fanlight, opens into the Amtico-floored front hall; it has original period features – centre rose, decorative cornicing like a number of rooms in the house. (Most of the rooms also have working shutters.) The diningroom on the left, like a sittingroom on the right, has varnished original floorboards.
Cloakroom
An arched door at the end of the hall opens into an internal hall where a handsome staircase winds up to the next two floors. The kitchen at the end of the hall has copper lighting over an island unit and a Stanley range. There’s another sittingroom, a pantry and a cloakroom at this level.
The cinema and games room are on the first floor return, with four bedrooms and a shower room on the second floor and four more bedrooms as well as a family bathroom on the third floor.
The main bedroom has an en suite dressingroom and bathroom, with a rolltop bath and shower. A striking Viking-style boat bed in one of the bedrooms was a wedding present.
There’s vehicular access (and room for parking) at the side of the house, leading to a 59ft by 79ft walled rear garden that’s mostly tarmac with a perimeter lawn. There is a raised, covered deck area.
