Someone buy this adorable Cavan gate lodge for €100,000 and give it the restoration it deserves

It’s rare that an early 19th-century Tudor Gothic-style building comes on the market in Ireland, and even rarer that it’s got a sky-high price to match. Typically buildings from this era are Georgian townhouses going for the €500,000 mark and in need of a similar-sized investment, or else a colossal country estate with more rooms than most hotels and zero modern plumbing.

But those are not this. This gate lodge was built around 1837 and is located on the Cavan side of the Cavan/Monaghan border, sandwiched two lakes: Drimgorry Lough and Corrarod Lough. It’s a tidy 50 square metres with two bedrooms and a bathroom, making it a feasible project for those of us with infinite enthusiasm but not infinite finances.

The gatehouse was once part of the Cloverhill Demesne and is now on the market for €100,000. The main house is now sadly in ruins and encased in creeping vines. This beautiful little gate lodge could be going the same way without a dedicated restoration.

There are plenty of architectural flourishes throughout, including crenellated bay windows, carved Tudor sandstone hoods, limestone quoins, cast-iron drainpipes and metal latticed windows.

The roadside of the .67-acre property is bordered by a cast-iron fence and gate. The house itself undoubtedly requires so extensive work, a porch leading into the largest room, featuring a large fireplace and the bay window. 

Beyond that is a small kitchen that also acts as a corridor to the bathroom, back hall and the smaller of two bedrooms. The main bedroom is a dual-aspect facing the southwest of the property.

So, any takers? You’re not buying it for what it looks like now, but all the potential it has. Otherwise, it might end up like the main house, another piece of Irish architectural history lost to nature.