A scan of house sales on the Residential Property Price Register so far in 2013 revealed one sale of a Wicklow property that stands head and shoulders above the rest. Winton Grove on Ballybawn Road Lower, near Enniskerry (pictured below) sold for €1.8 million on January 4th.

Apart from the sale of Humewood Castle – possibly one of the finest properties in Ireland – for €7.2 million in November 2012, Winton’s is the highest price achieved for a house in Wicklow since October 2010, when Knockarron, also in Enniskerry, sold for €1.85 million.

Winton is an enormous six-bed newly built house looking across to Powerscourt Estate, that went on sale in 2008 for €3.85 million. Sherry FitzGerald Bray, who were the selling agent, had been most recently quoting €1.895 million on the property. To come in €95,000 short of the asking was no bad return.

Winton’s proportions are vast with vaulted ceilings everywhere, garden decking of 186sq m (2,000sq ft), electronic gates, a tennis court and a separate “games house” with a sports bar. It’s all redolent of a very different time not so very long ago.