A fine 340ac country estate complete with 11-bedroom period house and four smaller staff houses has come on the market in Co Wicklow. The spectacular property is Fortgranite Estate outside Baltinglass. It’s being sold by Kinsella Auctioneers by private treaty with a guide price of €4.5m to €5m.

This holding will attract the interest of a wide variety of potential buyers including investors and wealthy families – here and abroad – who would be interested in a large country house in which to live. But it will also be of interest to farmers – Fortgranite was run as a dairy operation until five years ago.

The estate is located midway between Baltinglass and Kiltegan on the R747 main road. It is close to the Wicklow and Carlow border. It has frontage on the main road and two side roads.

Most of the land – 285ac – is in one block with the house and farmyard. The other 55ac is directly across the road. So essentially the farm is in one unit.

Good-quality land

Most of the land is good-quality and free-draining. It is laid out in 20 main fields. Farm roadways run from the yard out through the fields giving good, year round access. The land is in permanent pasture - some of this parkland with mature trees – and tillage.

There are two entrances from the public road. The front entrance, coming off the main road, has a charming castle-style gateway. The other, rear entrance comes off a side road and is suited for all vehicles including agricultural machinery.

The main house and the farmyard are together. The yard has 220 cubicles and various other bedded and slatted winter houses.

There are haysheds, slurry stores and open silage pits. The milking machine was removed but, according to auctioneer Joe Kinsella the parlour has space for an 18-unit side-by-side with automatic feeders. There is an 8,800l bulk milk tank.

The main house and farmyard are in the centre of the land.

There are cattle handling facilities in the yard including a crush and holding pens. There are two other, smaller yards alongside, one a stable yard and the other a traditional courtyard with granite buildings laid out as loose boxes and stores.

The main house is three floors over a basement and is very large at 11,802 square feet (1,096 square meters). It was built in the 1720s and was last upgraded in 1969. It was lived in until some years ago but now needs modernising and upgrading.

The basement has the original kitchen plus ten other rooms, originally used for servicing the house. The ground floor has 12 rooms which are reception and living rooms, library, etc. The first floor has 10 bedrooms and four bathrooms.

The second floor has two rooms, one of them a bedroom. Outside the house are gardens with a lake, a former tennis court and many specimen trees.

There are gate lodges at the two entrances, each with one bedroom. There are two two-storey staff houses, with two and three bedrooms respectively.