Co LouthA beautifully located Victorian house on eight acres overlooking Carlingford Lough and the Mourne Mountains is expected to make around €1.2 million when it goes to auction on September 26th.
The joint selling agents are Lisney in Belfast and Property Partners Laurence Gunne in Dundalk.
Nucella Lodge at Omeath, Co Louth, has been owned by the same family since 1944 when it was bought for £1,050.
The successful bidder at the auction held in the house was the only one to turn up on the day because of a severe storm that stopped the rowing-boat ferry from reaching Omeath. Three generations of the same family have since spent their summer holidays there, enjoying the superb views and the unspoiled mountain ranges of the Cooley peninsula.
The popularity of the area for holidays in the 1940s and 1950s was due in part to the Newry-to-Greenore railway line which stopped in many of the townlands along the coast until it closed down.
Nucella Lodge has a lovely old-world charm including a sweeping driveway to the house through mature woodlands. The house stands near the top of the site, high above the water. The old tennis court - like the walled garden - are now overgrown, and the stable yard and coach house have been disused for years.
The house itself has a shabby-sheek look about it and will undoubtedly be upgraded to bring it back to its former glory. There is a lovely old entrance hall leading into three reception rooms, most notably the diningroom and the drawingroom which both have large bay windows overlooking the lough.
The breakfastroom like the kitchen (still with an Aga) look out directly over the old tennis court.
Interestingly, all five bedrooms have fireplaces still in situ and the two main bedrooms have superb views over the lough.
Outside there are external stairs from the courtyard down to a single basement room, originally used as a wine cellar.
The house itself was reroofed and plastered externally in 1990.
The selling agents say that there is obvious development potential along the front of the site which has been rezoned for commercial and residential use.
