Co Kildare is horse country. Backing on to Naas Racecourse, and with views of Punchestown, Kingsfurze House couldn't be better located. Add to that 15 acres in three paddocks with cross-country jumps, plus 14 stables, a horse walker, hay barn and floodlit sand arena, and your horses would be pretty happy here too.
So what’s in it for the humans? The house, which was built in the 1960s and renovated by the current owners when they moved here in 1989, has six bedrooms and is just a mile from Naas. “It was a funny style of a house,” says the owner, “the main living space was upstairs, with the bedrooms on the ground floor, so we changed that around and moved the kitchen and family room downstairs”.
There are still steps up to the front door, but now you can also access the ground floor directly too. Five of the bedrooms are upstairs, along with a large sitting/dining room with a balcony providing fabulous views. The house had been owned by Diana Wilson, a well-known event rider, who put in the sand arena and some of the cross-country course. Jake and Ben O'Connor, two of the owners' sons, are currently in Kentucky, where the Irish Mounted Games team are among the favourites at the World Championships.
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“The location couldn’t be better,” says the owner, “you’re practically in Naas, without feeling as if you’re in town. It’s off a lane and still very rural, though you’re two minutes from the motorway too.
“We have great memories here. You can see Naas Racecourse from the livingroom balcony, and there are two jumps that run by the gable end of the house.
“We’d go out into the garden with the kids, and they’d know some of the jockeys and shout encouragement at them.”
If that’s not enough to beguile the horse-lover in you, the stables are visible from the principal bedroom, so you can rest easy knowing your pets (or immensely valuable bloodstock) are safe and sound.
The 440sq m (4,736sq ft) ranch-style house is for sale at €975,000 with Sherry FitzGerald Country Homes, Farms and Estates and Sherry FitzGerald O'Reilly in Naas.
