At Clone House, an elegant Georgian residence nestled in Wicklow's Aughrim hills, owner Carla Watson and her family have enjoyed such a lifestyle for the past six years.

Carla likes nothing better than cooking up something special on the Aga in the massive kitchen of her home . . . and being a native Tuscan who formerly ran her own restaurant in Florence, she has plenty of wonderful Italian recipes to refer to. The recipe for creating an award-winning manor guesthouse, however, involved quite a bit of heavy duty prep of another kind.

"Although a certain amount of restoration had been completed on the house when we moved here, there was still plenty of work remaining. We had all of the garden to do, plus re-plumbing to consider and of course, re-decorating throughout. But these are the things that come with a period property . . . you expect that and it's part of the charm in a way, too, " she says. This is a pretty big house (673sq m; 7,240sq ft), even by period country home standards, but its owner has the running of it down to a T, with family space in one wing and guest accommodation in the rest of the space.

The property is two miles from Aughrim village and 45 miles from Dublin. Well-caredfor grounds extend to four acres, with sprawling lawns interspersed with trees and shrubs, plus a large pond filled with water lilies and exotic koi.

Accommodation throughout is faithful to the style of its Georgian heritage, with rather grand reception rooms and no less than eight bedroom suites, plus three further bedrooms and a large bathroom. All the same, this is not an intimidating house . . . quite the contrary says Carla. "Most of our guests are Dubliners who love coming to Wicklow to relax in the country, and we encourage them to make this a 'home from home'."

The hall introduces the house in fine period style, defined by a mosaic tiled floor and elegant ceiling cornice.

Leading from here are the principal reception rooms. The drawingroom has large, dualaspect bay windows and both this room and the diningroom have their original marble fireplaces. Another feature of the diningroom is the French door which leads out to the gardens.

Other rooms leading from the hall comprise the study, cloakroom, office, familyroom, breakfastroom and library.

Doors connect from both the library and breakfastroom to the heart of the house . . . the vast kitchen. The four-oven Aga warms the room as well as providing ample cooking facilities. Leading from the rear hall, with secondary staircase to the first floor, are a number of other functional spaces including the laundry room, WC, games room and separate sauna with shower.

On the first floor are the eight suites, plus the three standard bedrooms. All of the suites have retained their period fireplace, either decorative cast iron or elegant marble, while several of the private bathrooms have free-standing, Edwardian cast-iron baths.

Apparent throughout is a heritage which dates back to the 1650s, and although a casualty of the 1798 United Irishmen rebellion, Clone House was re-built in 1805 and has functioned as both a grand family home and country manor guesthouse combined, pretty much since.

For Carla, the time has come to reluctantly move on, now that her husband has work commitments in the UK and her three children are away at school and university. She will miss her walks in the lush gardens and the ritual of rustling up those Tuscan gourmet dishes. "I love cooking, and do all of it myself for the family and a houseful of guests too . . .

it's second nature to an Italian."

Price: 2.1m Joint agents: Colliers Jackson Stops 01-633 3700;

HOK Country 01-663 4350