Fancy a home in Ireland? How about a former monastery for $669,000

17-acre, 19th century Roscommon ‘home’ for sale

By

LAURA BRYN SISSON,

IrishCentral Intern

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

Make a comment

The former monastery Highlake House, Roscommon

Photo by MyHome.ie

Tweet

It’s almost as though prospective homeowners aren’t looking for a three-story bell tower, a stable, and a chapel painted with Celtic murals these days.

Edward and Jane van den Berg have lowered the asking price for their Ballinaheglish home from €845,000 (around $1mill.) in 2011 to €545,000 ($668,878).

Mr. van den Berg hopes to sell their remodeled 19th century monastery in Co. Roscommon to “somebody with a sense of adventure and romance in their blood,” the Irish Independent reported Friday.

The monastery, known as Highlake House, was built by the Franciscan Brothers in 1857, and remained in use by the brothers for teaching, farming, horticulture and woodwork until 1968. An English couple attempted to restore the property as a house but sold it in 2000, before the conversion was complete.

The van den Bergs had been searching for a rectory or glebe house for years before they happened across Highlake, as they had lived in one in Mullingar in the seventies.

Necessary restorations undertaken by the van den Bergs included insulation, new roofs and doors, rewiring and re-plumbing.

The couple also created a “formal inner yard” and a landscaped garden and orchard, according to the Irish Independent.

Mr. van den Berg believes the chapel, which can hold 60 people in its nave alone, “would make a wonderful concert hall because of its acoustics, or a gallery,” he told the Independent.

Although the couple love the seclusion and history of their home, they intend to use the profits from its sale to divide their time between Ireland and Holland, where their grandchildren live.

That is, once they’ve sold it. Fancy a monastery?

Print

E-mail

Tweet