The Loughcrew Estate, Oldcastle, Co. Meath, Ireland
The Loughcrew Estate-aerial view
 
AN HISTORICALLY RENOWNED COUNTRY ESTATE on circa 200 acres / 81 hectares in a sweeping parkland setting.

5 bedroom principal residence over basement. 3 bedroom guest wing. 3 bedroom ‘Groom’s House’. 2 bedroom apartment.  2 bedroom basement apartment.

Stone courtyard with studio and 2 ballrooms. Farmyard with forge, coach houses and barn. Public gardens with coffee shop and craft centre, where Loughcrew Garden Opera has been staged annually since 2000. Remains of the famous church of Saint Oliver Plunkett.

Oldcastle:  3 miles / 4.8km
Kells:  11.5 miles / 18.4km
Navan:  21.5 miles / 34.4km
Dublin City & Airport:  50 miles / 80km
Belfast City & Airport:  96 miles / 154km
 
LOCATION:  Loughcrew is situated amidst the beautiful rolling drumlins of north County Meath next to the prehistoric passage graves of international renown, Loughcrew Cairns.

The area around Loughcrew is one of the unknown delights on the doorstep of Dublin. The Loughcrew Hills have thirty two passage graves of the Newgrange type, with strangely decorated stones and dark tunnels in which the ashes of chieftains, 6,000 years old, await the rising sun.

The Loughcrew Cairns crown the adjacent hills overlooking the estate and contain 5,000 year old wall carvings and form a solar calendar older than Stonehenge, older than the Pyramids.

The surrounding landscape is atmospheric and serene, with rolling parklands, forests and ring forts.
The Loughcrew Estate-columns
 
The property is 3 miles from the thriving market town of Oldcastle and is within easy reach of Kells, Navan and Cavan towns. Dublin City and International Airport is approximately 50 miles and the new M3 motorway, when completed, will offer even swifter journey times to the city.

THE LOUGHCREW ESTATE comprises Loughcrew House, Loughcrew Gardens, and ancillary accommodation and circa 200 acres / 81 hectares of parkland and grounds. ‘Loughcrew Garden Opera’ have been holding operas and concerts in the grounds of the estate since 2000 during the summer months, which have proved immensely popular. Weddings, exhibitions and craft workshops have also been held in the large rooms within the courtyard buildings. The entire estate offers superb potential for further commercial development.
 
The Loughcrew Estate-front
 
LOUGHCREW HOUSE:  Remaining within the Naper family from the 17th Century to the present day, Loughcrew has had a turbulent and fascinating history. Originally the seat of the Plunkett family, its most famous member being St Oliver Plunkett whose church still remains today on the estate, the first Loughcrew House was built in the 1600s by the Naper family, where the current formal gardens exist, amidst an awesome 180,000 acre estate.

Subsequently destroyed by fire, the next Loughcrew House was designed by Charles Cockerel in 1821 for the Naper family. In 1964 this house too was destroyed by fire and all that remains today is the giant portico, rebuilt and free-standing as a modern day folly, and a hard tennis court within the old footprint. Mark Bence Jones, in his guide to Irish Country Houses, describes the vast stones and fallen capitals of the 1820's neo-classical house, designed by Cockerell, once strewn about the ground like the remains of some lost city of antiquity.
 
The Loughcrew Estate-courtyard The Loughcrew Estate-murals
 
The current house grew out of The Garden House, a large and interesting stone building attached to the original courtyards, unusual in its design, and which used to house an array of flora and exotic plantlife. The rooms that make up the house were in fact originally the palm houses, the azalea houses and the furnace rooms. It currently comprises two principal reception rooms, including a particularly fine drawing room, two sunrooms, kitchen, 5 bedrooms, basement and a guest wing with three further bedrooms.
 
The Loughcrew Estate-church ruins
 
LOUGHCREW HISTORIC GARDENS: Since 1660, generations of the Naper family have been creating Loughcrew Gardens, which are open to the public for a number of months during the year. The result is a stunning combination of vistas, with water and archaeological features and many unusual trees, shrubs and flowers. A host of enchanting features are displayed in a setting steeped in atmosphere and history, including a medieval motte and the ruins of Saint Oliver Plunkett's family church and tower house.

The surviving 17th century features include a magnificent yew walk, foundations of a longhouse and a walled garden from which a canal and a parterre have been relocated in replica. In the 19th century these earlier elements were enveloped in a comprehensive development of parkland, watergardens, specimen trees, follies, rockeries, woodwalks and magnificent vistas. The central area of approximately six acres now includes a lime avenue, extensive lawns and terraces, magnificent herbaceous border, ‘Grotesque Rockery and Grotto’, the Rootery, Hellfire garden, watermill, fountain, and symbolic statues and sculptures.

A large, log-cabin-style visitor centre with car park is located at the entrance to the gardens. This contains a spacious coffee shop on the ground floor with small kitchen and lavatories. A covered decked area provides outdoor seating. On the first floor is a large room for a crèche or craft centre with lavatories.
 
The Loughcrew Estate-gardens 1 The Loughcrew Estate-gardens 2
 
ACCOMMODATION:  Main House Ground Floor:

Library/Living Room: Fitted shelving and solid fuel stove.
Drawing Room: Fine formal room with decorative pillars, raised fireplace and double doors to the gardens.
Kitchen/Breakfast Room: Tiled floor with Aga cooker, kitchen cupboards and sink unit.
Sun Room: Fine room with flagged floor and glazed roof. Large double doors to garden.
Bedroom: Tiled floor.
Shower room: with shower, WC and wash basin.
Hall: tiled floor.  Pantry.  Guest WC.
Office: double doors to Yard.
Living Room: door to yard.
Utility / Boot Room: in basement area, leads into old cellars now used for timber storage, boiler room, utility room and general stores.

4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
 
The Loughcrew Estate-hall
The Loughcrew Estate-music room
 
Guest Wing Ground Floor:
Outer Porch/Sun room: Fine high room with flagged floor and glazed roof. Large double doors to garden,
Bedroom
Reception Hall
Guest Shower Room: with shower, WC and wash hand basin.

Guest Wing First Floor:
Landing: with airing cupboard.
2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom.
 
The Loughcrew Estate-drawing room The Loughcrew Estate-bedroom
 
The ‘Groom’s House’:

Beside the Courtyard is a most attractive groom or manager’s house of cut stone. It stands two stories and is adjacent to the former brewery (which is now used as stores but with excellent potential). Accommodation includes the following: Entrance hall with fireplace, kitchen/dining Room with Stanley oil fired cooker/central heating, office, large living room with solid fuel stove. On the first floor are three bedrooms, two double and one single, and a full bathroom.

Coach House Apartment:

A recently converted coach house of two stories comprising open plan kitchen/living room with timber floor, shaker style kitchen fittings, fireplace, stairs and guest WC. On the first floor is a mezzanine living area overlooking the living area below and 2 double bedrooms each lit by skylights, and a full shower room.

Basement Apartment:

A recently renovated and converted apartment at garden level containing open plan living room, dining room, kitchen, large bedroom and bathroom with shower, WC and wash hand basin, utility/boiler room with oil fired burners.
The Loughcrew Estate-palm room
 
The Main Courtyard:

A very useful cut stone enclosed courtyard with a cobble stone surface and surrounded with several converted buildings and former stables, now used for accommodation and commercial purposes. These include three offices, a large kitchen/studio (approx 8.4m x 5.48m), two large interconnecting showrooms (approx 11.7m x 5.48m each) used for parties, exhibitions and weddings. An arch leads to the Groom’s House and another to the former stables. These are now used as a studio (approx 7.9m x 5.48m) with new raised timber floor
and another similar room measures approx 15.5m x 5.48m.

The Farmyard:

The farmyard lies to the rear of the main courtyard and contains a former forge with original bellows now utilised as a workshop, two large coach houses one with inspection pit, a five bay hay barn enclosed on three sides, and a livestock handling area with pens.
 
The Loughcrew Estate-stable yard The Loughcrew Estate-grotesque folly
IN ALL ABOUT 81 HECTARES (200 ACRES)

WITHDRAWN

For further information, please phone or email William Montgomery's office as follows:

Grey Abbey Estate Office,
Newtownards,
Co. Down.  BT22 2QA
+44 (0)28 4278 8666 / 8668
william.montgomery@sothebys.com

Also in association with:

Savills Hamilton Osborne King,
32 Molesworth Street,
Dublin 2,
Ireland.
+353 (1)663 4350  /  info@savills.ie
The Loughcrew Estate-tree pond
The Loughcrew Estate-estate view