This charming and compact cottage with three beds in an idyllic country setting just over 2km outside Trim, Co Meath, is sure to attract plenty of interest with its assured mixture of old-world charm and modern-day comfort.
Close to a bend on the river Boyne and set on half an acre of well-tended gardens, the Parnellite cottage has been restored and extended, with many of its original features intact and quirky touches throughout that enhance the originality of the cottage.
Entering through the front door, a bedroom opens to the left, with the first of the wide pitch pine floorboards used throughout the property. This pretty room is dual aspect with double-glazed sash windows and a simple open fireplace. The joinery and doors are country style with traditional pine doors. Although the decor is bang up to date, the Ber of the house is a low G.
On the far side of a tiny vestibule is the sittingroom; a window is set into an interior wall, adding interest and light to a small, cosy room. A stove sits in an open fireplace with a stone hearth, and a flight of stairs leads to the first floor, papered in a striking black and white.
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Upstairs are a bathroom and two bedrooms with steeply pitched eaves. The smaller bedroom is fitted out as a nursery but would also make a great home office. The bathroom is lovely, with warm brick tiles over the bath with shower, and the same sloping eaves as the bedrooms. The principal bedroom has a bank of pine wardrobes cleverly slotting into the under-eaves space, and a cream carpet underfoot.
Returning downstairs is the house’s showstopper room, a long kitchen/livingroom, with two six-over-six sash windows and double doors opening on to the pretty garden. The timber roof is exposed and has inset Velux windows and pitch pine trusses and beams. At one end in its own niche sits a cream Aga with brick surround in the an L-shaped kitchen space, which has an island, a limestone countertop and in-frame timber units, painted in Farrow & Ball Pistachio.
The terracotta tile on the floor echoes nicely the brick columns running through the kitchen, while the living area has an exposed brick wall that fits the cottage aesthetic beautifully. Overall it’s a warm space and adds immense charm to the 96sq m (1033sq ft) cottage, which was used as an air-raid patrol post during the second World War.
A utility lies off the kitchen with fitted units, a Belfast sink and a cast-iron Sheila Maid clothes airer, as well as a loo. The exposed stone wall that features in the living area has been used here as well, to great effect.
The garden outside is pretty, with crushed limestone gravel surrounding the house. There’s also a variety of mature trees and a fenced-in play area with swings. As well as a carport, there’s a large shed with an inbuilt interior shed that serves as a storage room and gym. Kildalkey is a small village in the barony of Lune, 2km from Trim and a 50-minute drive from Dublin via the M3.
