While just a 20-minute train time to Dublin from Hazelhatch-Celbridge, this three-bedroom end terrace riverside house overlooks a mill race and has a south-facing garden. With otters and kingfishers on the doorstep, it feels far removed from the grind of daily commutes.
While the River Liffey courses through our capital city, very few residents get to engage with it in the same way as our Co. Kildare neighbours do.
There are rare homes along its banks from Islandbridge west to the Strawberry Beds, but it is really once you hit the county line that you see the river in full stride.
Address: 5 Templemills Cottages, Templemills, Celbridge, Co. Kildare, W23 NW61
Asking price: €445,000
Agent: Coonan Property
From Leixlip to Celbridge and beyond to Newbridge, Kilcullen, Ballymore Eustace and Blessington, the Lillywhites get a far more potent version of the waterway.
On one of the river’s backwaters, a mill race about one kilometre outside Celbridge, is number 5 Templemills Cottages, a former mill worker's home, one of about 20 set in a quiet little cul-de-sac.
Number 5 overlooks the water, an amenity the current owners of the three-bedroom, two-bathroom, two-storey house recognised the minute they first crossed its threshold.
They had just returned from living in New Zealand. One half of the couple was and remains an avid kayaker.
Having navigated the White Nile in Uganda, all over the Alps, Lavinia in Italy, France, Austria and Montenegro’s Tara River, one of Europe’s deepest canyons, he was immediately smitten.
They’re lulled to sleep at night by the sound of the water running over the nearby weir, and during the day, they see kingfishers fishing, while otters lie back and give them a welcoming nod.
Below swim eels, grayfish and trout.
He’s adroit enough to be able to tackle the weir and paddle into Celbridge, but less strong kayakers can contend themselves with navigating the stretch in front of the house.
There is access via a set of stone steps beside the property.
The double-fronted house opens directly into a large hall where there is a home office with the living room to the right.
The kitchen is directly in front, accessed via glazed doors.
The downstairs bathroom is off the kitchen, which links through to the glazed area at the back of the living room. From here, the view across the water isn’t overlooked.
Doors open out to the south-facing garden, which is walled and stepped, and laid out in artificial lawn.
Upstairs, there are three bedrooms. The principal bedroom is dual aspect.
There is parking at the front of the house, which extends to 122 square metres. Coonan Auctioneers is seeking €445 for the end-terrace house, whose BER cert is still pending.
