Grade I listed house in Northern Ireland offered for sale for the first time since it was built in 1620
Estate agents often wax lyrical over houses that have been sold just once or twice in a hundred years, but in the case of The Manor House at Dongaghadee in County Down, Northern Ireland the selling agents, Rodgers & Browne, have rare reason to do so with good reason. The property has never once been sold since it was built in 1620 and only now is on the market for £925,000 ($1.3 million or €1.2 million).
Situated in the heart of a harbour town and about nineteen miles east of Belfast, The Manor House was built by Hugh Montgomery and came into the De Lacherois family subsequently after Marie De Lacherois inherited the Montgomery Estates in 1750. The property is now offered for sale by the eighth generation of that family, Nicholas Day, a cattle rancher in Kenya, and of it he commented:
“I live in east Africa and the rest of my family live in London so there is no one to live in the house and care for it. It is a fine townhouse and I would come in and out from George Best Airport often and it is very handy to get there”.
“It is in the centre of the town and yet when you close the door you have peace and quiet and it is a great house for the family as there is plenty of room in it”
“I don’t want it to be unloved and unlived in and so it is ready for someone else to enjoy it”.
Described as offering “the size and grandeur of a fine country seat, yet [being] uniquely positioned in its own private grounds in the centre of Donaghadee”, The Manor House itself is some 10,522 square foot in size and comes with a stable block converted into a modern house, outbuildings and planning permission for residential and commercial development.
Though to some it may seem a pity to lose such a fine and historic family home, with the prospect of further investment in the town’s tourism sector, The Manor House could make what the selling agents describe as a “Hidden Ireland style guest house” or boutique hotel. It is time, they add, for “a new chapter in its history”.
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