St Clerans in Craughwell, Co Galway, is an 18th-century Georgian mansion where director John Huston lived for almost 20 years

The late John Huston is not only known for classic films such as The Maltese Falcon and The Misfits, but also for his long association with Ireland. He was already wheelchair-bound and dying of emphysema while directing his very last film here, The Dead, in l987.


Working along with him on this story, from James Joyce's Dubliners, was his actress daughter Anjelica, and his son Tony, who wrote the screenplay adaptation.


But the family had put down roots much earlier, back in 1954, when Huston paid £35,000 for St Clerans, an 18th-century Georgian mansion on 45 acres in Craughwell, Co Galway. He famously described it as "the most beautiful house in Ireland" and made it the family home along with his then wife Ricki Soma. The house already had a long illustrious history before famous guests such as playwright Arthur Miller, and Hollywood's Marlon Brando and Cary Grant, among others, enjoyed Huston's largesse in St Clerans formal dining room.


Originally called Issercleran, the two-storey residence was built by the Burke clan in 1784. Much of that Georgian architectural stamp remains, with a grand entrance hall designed to impress guests from the off, and a drawing room credited with having one of the finest 'sunburst' plaster ceiling centrepieces remaining in houses of this period.


To the rear is the library, with a westerly orientation, and a large fully fitted kitchen.


Other rooms at entrance-floor level comprise the dining room, sitting room and two bedrooms with private bathrooms.


Upstairs are five bedrooms, each with a fireplace and private bathroom. Down at garden level are four further bedrooms, again with private bathrooms.


As the accommodation suggests, St Clerans' most recent function was as a five-star hotel. The transformation came about when it was bought in l997 by Merv Griffin. Having paid £2m for it, the famous American talk-show host reportedly put double that amount again into restoration of the house, largely back to its period original, and filling it with his sizable art collection.


Griffin used it both as a holiday getaway as well as a business venture to add to his chain of hotels elsewhere.


He died in 2007, and St Clerans was first put on the market as an executor's sale by the Griffin Trust that year, and then briefly last year.


The property is now up for sale again through worldwide agents Coldwell Banker and offers an interesting prospect for the next owner, says chief executive Nick Hughes.


"The trust expects they will likely be paid in dollars, and with the dollar currently weak, it could present an opportunity for buyers." The agency's Beverly Hills office is also currently marketing St Cleran's. "There have been enquiries from some well-known American clients with Irish connections, and also from the Middle East, particularly from those with a strong interest in horse racing," adds Hughes.


The property ceased trading as a hotel last year, but potential owners will be just as intrigued by the house's links to Hollywood as to its viability as a going concern.


St Clerans has provoked many superlatives from previous owners: Merv Griffin described his purchase as "an investment of the heart".


There's also the Angelica Suite – a separate, octagonal shaped stone lodge on the estate. When Huston's marriage eventually ran into trouble, his wife Ricki, Tony and Anjelica were said to have moved to live for a time in this smaller house.


Although seriously ill when he came to direct The Dead, the poignant story of an Epihany house party in 1904 Dublin, Huston described the film as a labour of love.


Interestingly for Anjelica, who spent so much of her early life in Galway, her character in the film, Kitty Conroy, is largely based on the love of Joyce's life – Galway woman Nora Barnacle.


Price: offers of €3.7m


Further details: Coldwell Banker Estates
01 411 0012