Classical period house on 28 acres beside Phoenix Park for sale

A classical period house on almost 28 acres close to Ashtown railway station and the Phoenix Park in north Dublin goes for sale today at a knockdown price of €3.5 million. It was sold before the property crash in 2006 for €26 million.

Robert Colleran of agent CBRE first offered Ashton House and estate for sale on behalf of Nama more than two years ago. It was later withdrawn in the expectation that the land would be rezoned to accommodate a residential development.

The planners decided otherwise, and the estate is now back on the market and likely to end up as either a trophy home, nursing home, wedding venue or equestrian centre.

The estate was originally acquired during the boom by the late Liam Maye, a former shareholder in Castlethorn, the construction company that developed Dundrum Town Centre.

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It was built in the mid-1880s and remodelled later in a Palladian style to match the Archbishop's House in Drumcondra

Castlethorn also built a range of shopping and residential schemes, including one on an adjoining Ashtown site at the rear of the Halfway House bar and restaurant.

Colleran says that with a “high amenity” zoning the land now has limited development potential other than scope to refurbish or replace some of the existing buildings and possibly extend the main house.

The Victorian Italianate-style mansion consists of a three-storey main block with two-storey wings. Both the main block and the wings have balustraded roof parapets. It was built in the mid-1880s and remodelled later in a Palladian style to match the Archbishop’s House in Drumcondra.

Ownership of the house changed relatively frequently over the years, and it was owned by the Moore, Alexander, Neyland and Stone families before it ended up with Liam Maye.

The house has an overall floor area of 600sq m (6,458sq ft), including 12 large bedrooms, a spacious diningroom, ballroom, kitchen and storerooms. Ashton House is currently rented by the Camelot Security Company.

The grounds have a four-bed lodge and a four-bed gate bungalow as well as dog kennels, stables and a barn. Separately it has a restored one-acre walled garden with greenhouses.

The Ashton estate overlooks the Tolka river valley, and backs on to the Royal Canal.

It is within a few minutes’ walk of Ashtown train station on the Maynooth line and, in the opposite direction, the estate adjoins Coolmine rugby grounds.