EDMONDSTOWN HOUSE, residence of the Catholic bishops of Achonry for the past 100 years, is for sale.
According to the diocesan website, it “does not meet contemporary day-to-day living needs, does not provide suitable office space for the administration of the diocese and is isolated”.
The asking price is €800,000, though one advertisement put this at €750,000. Situated about 3km from Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, local lore has it that Edmondstown House was built by Capt Arthur Robert Costello in 1864 to impress his actress wife, without success. She left him.
He was said to have died later of a broken heart, something of a habit with Costello men, according to local history.
The house, set on 29 acres, has seven bedrooms, two large reception rooms, a library, a fine staircase, a cellar and staff quarters. Outside there is a coach house, tiered lawns, a fountain and a tree-lined avenue.
It was bought by the diocese of Achonry in 1892 and used as St Nathy’s diocesan college. In 1896 the college moved to its present site in Ballaghaderreen. Edmondstown House remained vacant until 1911, when the then Bishop of Achonry, Patrick Morrisroe, moved in.
