Mountain high
A Meath mansion on 120ac is back on the market at a substantially reduced price, reports
MOUNTAINSTOWN House on 120ac at Castletown- Kilpatrick, Navan, Co Meath is for sale by private treaty with a substantially reduced guide price from three years ago.
The 18th Century Georgian mansion and home to the Pollock family for 250 years is now guided by Savills at €2.795m
Located 13kms from Navan and 13km from Kells Mountainstown is in the heart of rural Meath and surrounded by 120ac of parkland, paddocks and mature woodland. The property includes the main house, outhouses, a two-bed keeper’s lodge and the lands. Unlike many houses of its vintage Mountainstown is in mint condition having been carefully restored and modernised by the most recent occupants.
The residence was built in 1740 by Samuel Gibbons and leased by the Pollock family in the mid 1750s. It was sold to the Pollocks in 1796 and this family lived in the house up to recently. In the early 19th century the master of the house, John Pollock, a successful Dublin solicitor, added the south-facing wing. John’s son Arthur Corwallis Pollock was something of a traveller and in his youth ventured as far as Russia. He returned from his wanderings full of ideas and developed Mountainstown as a successful agricultural and sporting estate. He was also one of the founders of the Meath Hunt.
The house has been totally refurbished in recent years to combine the traditional and the very modern. The finished house is a mix of the charm of another time with all the conveniences of modern living.
The house is approached by a double set of balustraded stone steps into the main hall, which has a fine wide staircase and walls decorated with ornate plaster panels.
The ground floor is home to the elegant main hall, a library with its original leather wall covering and a spacious drawing room with a bay window leading to the garden. This floor also contains a study, play room, a butler’s pantry and a fine, modern Scavolini kitchen with Neff integrated appliances. Located off the kitchen is a pantry with shelving and a cloakroom.
The first floor has three spacious bedrooms, a family bathroom and an ensuite bathroom. The wing off the first floor has three further bedrooms and three bathrooms while the second floor/attic has another three bedrooms a bathroom and toilet.
The accommodation includes a basement that was once home to the kitchen but is now a full sized billiard room. The space includes the vaulted servant’s hall complete with the original servants’ bells, a music room, shoot room (previously the servants’ hall), a garden sitting room, a gym, a boot room, cloakroom, two wine cellars, two storerooms and a small kitchen.
Farmyard
The out offices include a garden house, a stone stable yard, coach houses, a modern farm yard, an old stone farmyard, a range of superb formal and informal gardens, parkland, paddocks along with mature and newly planted woodland. There is also a refurbished Keeper’s lodge with two bedrooms, while an extensive walled garden is currently untended but has the makings of a rewarding project.
The estate has three separate yards, namely the traditional 19th century stable yard with a range of 25 stables, a cobbled carriage wash, coach houses, a forge, tack rooms and a large open span stone built barn.
Beyond this is the modern farmyard with slatted sheds and barns. There is a traditional L-shaped stone farmyard, which is a mix of two storey and single storey buildings all in need of restoration.
A natural spring supplies water to the property from a Georgian double hexagonal stone well. Beyond the stable yard is an old stone yard with a cobbled barn, also the original kennels, which housed the Clongill and then the Meath Foxhounds.
The 120ac of land are laid out in rich fertile Meath pasture sheltered by magnificent stands of oak and beech especially along the road frontage. The area is well known for breeding both horses and cattle and for its rich and fertile grassland. There are also several well-known stud farms and training establishments in the locality.
Pat O’Hagan of Savills describes Mountainstown as one of the most spectacular traditional estates on the market.