The White House by the shores of Lough Arrow
MY secondary school days were spent in the company of young men from all over the country.
Although the school was located in the heart of East Cork, students from as far away as Gortahurk in Donegal and Strandhill in Sligo were on the roll book.
Quite a few hailed from Sligo and in my youth, placenames such as Riverstown, Ballintogher, Strandhill and even famed Bonniconlon were as familiar to me as Adare, Patrickswell and Ballybrown.
I never heard my friends from Riverstown mention nearby Ballindoon House at Kingsborough on Lough Arrow. The Georgian sporting estate on 80ac is for sale by public auction with a guide price of €825,000.
Located 3km from the N4, 6km from Riverstown and 27km from Sligo with extensive frontage on to Lough Arrow, the property is accessed by a front and back avenue but has no road frontage.
The entire portfolio includes a sevenbedroom mansion, an original court yard, a gate lodge, a garden lodge, a chapel building, a boathouse, a domed observatory and extensive lake frontage along with 80ac of woodland and grassland.
The house was built in the 1820s and the accommodation consists of a large rotunda double hall that leads to the library with its bow window overlooking Lough Arrow.
The other reception rooms include a drawing room, dining room, the family sitting room, a study, a conservatory and a family room off the kitchen. The rooms all have Georgian high ceilings and most look out on the lake. There are seven bedrooms upstairs, four with bathrooms.
A unique feature of the house is a viewing dome with commanding views of the lake and the surrounding countryside.
The lower ground floor is unused but has 11 rooms with lots of potential.
The house has all the characteristics of the classic Georgian country residence with the addition of a striking entrance portico and a domed full height return at the south of the building.
Other features include ornate plasterwork, original fireplaces, original floorboards and a cantilevered staircase.
Boathouse
Elsewhere on the property there is a boathouse in good condition along with a gate lodge and a garden lodge both in need of refurbishment. There is a traditional cut stone yard that could also do with attention.
With extensive frontage on to the lake the lands extend to 80ac.
According to Celia Lamb of Wilsons Auctions, up to 50ac of the land is in good, south facing, freedraining grassland that is sloping to the lake. The house needs some work.
The ground is mainly in old pasture that could do with some attention while the remainder is in woodland with many specimen and rare old trees.
Ms Lamb describes Ballindoon House as “a magical spot, a very appealing place to live,” she said.
It will be sold at Wilsons Auctions, Kingswood, Co Dublin on Wednesday, October 17.