Titled figure with estate overlooking country in Ireland previously (7)
I believe the answer is:
earlier
'previously' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'titled figure with estate overlooking country in ireland' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'figure' could be 'l' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'l' is located in the answer.
'ireland' could be 'ie' (two letter country code) and 'ie' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for earlier that I've seen before include "Older" , "(Happening) before in time" , "of a bygone age?" , "Prior" , "Formerly" .)