Built in 1925 and extended over the years, Gleann Doire in Straffan, Co Kildare, is a well-appointed home on two acres of gardens.
Its first occupant is believed to have been Colonel James Slattery, one of Michael Collins’s 12 apostles, known as the one-handed assassin as he lost a hand in the War of Independence. He farmed the land here and kept a low profile over the decades that followed.
The current owner’s family have enjoyed 25 years of country life here, and are placing the property on the market with Coonan Property, seeking €2 million, as they are downsizing.
They have extended the property, doubling its size and turning a period farmhouse into a luxurious residence of 465 sq m (5,000 sq ft) with five bedrooms, a large kitchen and a separate, self-contained apartment.
Before you see the ivy-clad house, entrance gates open on to a driveway flanked by laurel which twists through the well-landscaped gardens. Mature trees are abundant and scattered throughout the gardens and include maple, cedar, sycamore, oak, silver birch and rowan.
The entrance hall is tiled in black and white Irish marble, currently occupied by a grand piano, and on its right is a drawingroom with windows overlooking the gardens, a solid slate and wooden fireplace, and a study behind it, with another impressive fireplace and terracotta tiled floors.
A diningroom and a vaulted games room lie to the right of the entrance hall, with the spacious kitchen to the back of the house. The owners took the beams that were a feature of the games room and replicated them throughout the ground floor adding to the farmhouse feel, and they sit well with the opulent interiors created by SKI designers.
Upstairs there are five bedrooms; the main bedroom is vast and split-level, with a large walk-in wardrobe and a luxurious en suite. Another bedroom to the back of the house also has a dressingroom and an en suite and two of the other bedrooms are also en suite.
A covered, ivy-clad passage leads to a separate apartment that has a kitchen and living area, a bedroom and a bathroom.
There is also a double garage at the end of the house. A stone wall divides the house and gardens – featuring patios, a pond and a playground under a copse of cedars – from the farm buildings at the back of the property.
These buildings have their own entrance and driveway so present a myriad of uses for agriculture or equine use or indeed, subject to planning permission, for further development. With more than 3,500 sq ft of space, these buildings could be transformed into a home gym, swimming pool or tennis courts, or the option is there to increase the stabling already on the property with a small barn or indoor exercise yard.
Gleann Doire is an utterly secluded, beautifully set home in an unsurpassed location beside the K Club and on the road to Sallins and Naas. The train station at Sallins is a 10-minute drive away. With a good selection of secondary schools in Naas and a primary school in Straffan village. It offers the epitome of country living yet close to Dublin.
