Country living at its most elegant is on the market in Co Galway in the shape of the 175ac Cregg Castle. This beautiful estate is at Cregg, Corrandulla and it’s on offer jointly from Savills and Helen Cassidy Auctioneers. The property would make a very fine home for a high-income family wishing to live in rural Ireland. But it will also be assessed with a commercial eye by individuals interested in converting it to a hotel destination.

The entrance hall and stairs.

The castle has many original features inside and out.

One of the family living rooms.

The castle has 20 bedrooms.

The guide price is €1,850,000 - and there’s a lot on offer for the money.

The estate is in a good location, 2km from the village of Corrandulla, 11km from Claregalway and 16km from Galway city. The M6 and M17/18 motorways are 13km away.

The land is in one block, divided into grassland and woodland.

The castle is entered from a local road through a stone wall entrance with piers and wrought iron gates which lead on to a driveway flanked on both sides by mature trees.

The castle, lying in the centre of the land, is imposing: three-bay, three storey over a half-basement. It has a long history. The central portion was built c1648 by the Kirwan family, one of twelve notable families of the county. The west wing was added in c1780, the east wing c1870. In the early 1800s the estate passed into the ownership of the Blakes, another prominent Galway family. The present owners acquired the estate in 2007.

The gate lodge has three bedrooms.

The building is large with an area of c10,623 square feet, plus a further 7,849 square feet in the basement. There are 20 bedrooms. The building is in need of some renovation and modernisation, but it retains its original features, outside and in. External features include rendered chimney stacks with terracotta pots, cemented roughcast walls, square-headed timber transom and mullion windows, as well as timber sliding sash windows.

The castle sits in the middle of the land.

The front door is approached by two flights of limestone steps protected by cemented walls. The front entrance is a round-headed doorway with a double-leaf mid-eighteenth-century door.

The land has been let out for grazing by the current owners.

Among the interior features are corniced ceilings with centre roses, decorative fireplaces, architraves and sash and case windows and shutters. The castle has a private chapel, spanning the length of the 5-bay chapel wing which forms the east side of the rear courtyard.

To the rear there is a traditional stone courtyard, an old stable yard and a walled garden. There is a two-storey gate lodge at the entrance to the estate. This is 1,936 square feet in area and has three bedrooms.

The land is suited for grazing and silage.

There are internal roadways through the estate.

The land is in a single block and is in a mix of grassland and mature woods. It breaks down as c86ac under permanent pasture, 85ac under timber and the balance under the houses, courtyard and gardens. The grassland is well suited for grazing and silage. It has been let out by the owners for grazing. The woodland is largely mature hardwoods, planted in parkland style. This means the woodland is well suited for amenity use.