More or less massive at Lismore's lovely heritage home Ardagh

NOT only are you getting a handsome home and history with Ardagh, a period house on grounds in west Waterford’s Lismore heritage town, you are also getting architectural distinction and a host of original, retained detailing, plus space galore.

Fresh to market for a long-time owner is Ardagh on the Mayfield Road, within a few minutes’ walk of the town and the famed Blackwater river Lismore Castle, all reached via Park’s Road, Chapel Place, or South Mall.

Yet, for all that town proximity, once inside the gate on its 1.47 acre site with old barns and yard Ardagh feels more country, more farmyard-like, which is a bit disconcerting as the house is quite a remove in quality and design terms from almost any other style of town-edge farm dwellings.

The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage dates it to 1875, but it may be older, says joint selling agent David Reynolds of Sherry FitzGerald Reynolds, acting with Lismore agent Michael O’Leary and they guide the substantial, robust and quite gracious home at €675,000.

It weighs in at just shy of 4,000 sq ft, with six bedrooms (one at ground level) and has rooms over three levels, two up in the attic above a large, feature landing, while at ground level there are very fine reception rooms with original fireplaces, both double aspect and high ceilinged, and two link via original sliding pocket doors.

One, the living room, has a superb twinning of sash windows either side of the room’s corner with paneling in between — an early, 19th century example of a successful corner window arrangement.

Elsewhere there are several stained glass windows to admire, and the National Inventory of Architectural heritage judges that Ardagh “remains an important component of the townscape of Lismore, contributing significantly to the character of the locality”.

Coming up for a change of caring hands, Ardagh is going to need upgrades and spending (tho’ the heating has just been upgraded and there are several recently added showers) and landscaping to lift it back up to grace and some splendour, but given the setting, it’s all going to be worth it. Little is reported of its history other that it was part of the original Lismore Estate, a fact which explains the relative grandeur of this ‘farm home’ and while it’s offered on c 1.5 acres, more land is available in a field in the same vendor’s ownership between the Mayfield and Deerpark roads.

VERDICT: A house of this calibre would not look out of place in Foxrock’s Dublin, when you could put a €1m, or even a €2+m figure ahead of this lovely Lismore’s €675,00 rare offer.

Interest already is coming from the UK, and from more locally-based home hunters. Might it even have hospitality uses in its future given the Lismore location?