MOUNT VERNON IS A DELIGHTFUL GEORGIAN SEASIDE VILLA set in approximately 6 acres / 2.4 Hectares on the flaggy shore at the edge of The Burren in County Clare, with fine views over Galway Bay. The house was built in 1788 for Colonel William Persse, a friend of George Washington, who named it after Washington's plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia.
In the late 19th century Mount Vernon became the summer home of the art expert Sir Hugh Lane, who later drowned on the trans-Atlantic liner Lusitania and whose collection of Impressionist paintings now forms the nucleus of Dublin's Municipal Art Gallery.
The house subsequently passed to his aunt, Augusta, Lady Gregory, who entertained many of the lions of Ireland's cultural renaissance at Mount Vernon, including Yeats, AE (George Russell), Sean O'Casey, Synge and George Bernard Shaw. She later gave it to her artist son Robert as a wedding present. Robert was killed over France while a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps, an event that inspired Yeats' poem 'An Irish Airman Foresees his Death'.
In recent years Mount Vernon has been the home of the Helmore family. Two years ago the present owners, Mark and his wife Ally, decided to offer country house accommodation for visitors to the region and they opened their doors last year to great acclaim.
The house subsequently passed to his aunt, Augusta, Lady Gregory, who entertained many of the lions of Ireland's cultural renaissance at Mount Vernon, including Yeats, AE (George Russell), Sean O'Casey, Synge and George Bernard Shaw. She later gave it to her artist son Robert as a wedding present. Robert was killed over France while a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps, an event that inspired Yeats' poem 'An Irish Airman Foresees his Death'.
In recent years Mount Vernon has been the home of the Helmore family. Two years ago the present owners, Mark and his wife Ally, decided to offer country house accommodation for visitors to the region and they opened their doors last year to great acclaim.
ACCOMMODATION: The accommodation comprises the following: Hallway, Dining, Sitting Room, Kitchen, Pantry, Service Quarters, Five Bedrooms - all en suite.
Separate Staff or Guest Quarters with two Bedrooms, Sitting Room, Bathroom and Kitchen.
The lovely reception rooms feature painted panels from Sir William Gregory's time as Governor of Ceylon; three fireplaces were designed and built by the Pre-Raphelite painter Augustus John.
Separate Staff or Guest Quarters with two Bedrooms, Sitting Room, Bathroom and Kitchen.
The lovely reception rooms feature painted panels from Sir William Gregory's time as Governor of Ceylon; three fireplaces were designed and built by the Pre-Raphelite painter Augustus John.
The spacious bedrooms are extremely comfortable, with lovely garden and sea views. The wonderfully tended gardens, which include fine walled gardens to the side, provide a sheltered place to sit out in the sunshine.
Although conveniently located, only 20 miles from Galway city, this is a world apart. New Quay is a picturesque little village on the Galway Bay coastline, halfway between Kinvarra and Ballyvaughan. The village itself is sheltered behind Aughinish, an island linked by a causeway to Doorus, an isthmus west of Kinvarra.
The Burren features the fascinating limestone-layered fields of the 500 square kilometre stone-plated crown for North Clare and South Galway. It is an upside-down world of contradictions where rivers run underground through a honeycomb of caves carved by nature through low-resistance limestone. A year-round pasture flourishes at rocky heights, boasting Arctic, Alpine and Mediterranean plants which grow side by side in secret stone pockets and rocky wrinkles.
The Burren features the fascinating limestone-layered fields of the 500 square kilometre stone-plated crown for North Clare and South Galway. It is an upside-down world of contradictions where rivers run underground through a honeycomb of caves carved by nature through low-resistance limestone. A year-round pasture flourishes at rocky heights, boasting Arctic, Alpine and Mediterranean plants which grow side by side in secret stone pockets and rocky wrinkles.
The Burren has been aptly described as one 'vast memorial to bygone cultures', and must surely count as one of the best preserved and broadly representative archaeological landscapes in Europe. More than a match for the region's ecological and geological wealth, The Burren's built heritage features monuments characteristic of every period from the Neolithic onward, allowing us to trace the evolution of agricultural society from its 'hunter-gatherer' origins over six millennia ago to the present day.
Burren roads vary in age from 200 to 1,000 years, leading back through 7,000 years of habitation. For instance, some 75 Neolithic wedge tombs, 500 stone forts, hundreds of Bronze age fulacht fiadh (ancient cooking sites) and cist graves, early Christian Church sites and Medieval Tower Houses are found scattered throughout the hills. The magnificent portal tomb at Poulnabrone, the grand triumvallate (three walled) Cahercummaun, and the distinctive Leamanagh Castle are among the most easily recognised monuments in Ireland, but represent only a small piece of an extraordinary wealth of heritage to be found in The Burren.
For sale freehold by private treaty.
Viewing by appointment only.
Price on application.
For further information, or to view the property, please phone or email William Montgomery's office, as follows:
+44 (0)28 4278 8666 / 8668
william.montgomery@sothebys.com
Also in association with:
Helen Cassidy, B.A.(Mod)MIAVI. Auctioneer and Valuer,
Clonbur House, Clonbur, County Galway, Ireland.
00353 949546868
00353 87 2463748
helencassidyauctioneers@eircom.net
www.premierpropertiesireland.com
Viewing by appointment only.
Price on application.
For further information, or to view the property, please phone or email William Montgomery's office, as follows:
+44 (0)28 4278 8666 / 8668
william.montgomery@sothebys.com
Also in association with:
Helen Cassidy, B.A.(Mod)MIAVI. Auctioneer and Valuer,
Clonbur House, Clonbur, County Galway, Ireland.
00353 949546868
00353 87 2463748
helencassidyauctioneers@eircom.net
www.premierpropertiesireland.com
