£1.5m house may attract developers

One of the most interesting properties to come on the market this week is a detached house on an acre of garden in Churchtown, Dublin 14. Glenshiel, on Lower Churchtown Road, is a rambling Victorian six-bedroom house with an original coach house to the rear. Selling agent Sherry FitzGerald is quoting a guide price of £1.5m in advance of the September 30th auction.

While the property has undoubted appeal as a family home, it will also be eyed by developers who will see building potential in the long rear garden. Dating from the mid-1800s, the 3,600 sq ft house has been refurbished and redecorated over the last six years. The original sash windows, functioning shutters and cornicing are intact, but fireplaces have been replaced with simpler, slate surround versions, floors have been sanded, two of the bedrooms now have en suite facilities and most of the rooms are painted in rich tones of red, yellow and green. Finding the house might prove difficult for viewers. The entrance is on a bend in the road and is almost concealed by trees. Through the gates, a canopy of old trees arches the short, gravelled avenue, which opens out into a wide parking area in front of the creeper-clad house. The entrance hallway has the high-ceilinged, bright feel of the rest of the house with light from the fanlight over the front door making the most of polished oak floorboards and decorative ceiling work.

The ground floor layout works in a circular fashion, rooms running off the hallway, round the rear and back to the front.

To the right of the hall, double folding doors open to a morning room, where a shuttered window overlooks the front garden. This rooms leads on to the drawingroom, where there is a fine marble fireplace and windows to the side and front.

Behind this is a third reception room with windows to the side and rear. Steps lead down from this room to a butler's pantry and on to a utility room with plumbing and shelving, a cloakroom, storage room/ wine cellar and doors to the rear garden and the old style kitchen. Moving back along the hallway to the front of the house, there is a guest lavatory with tiled floor and wash-hand basin and an under-stairs storage area.

The diningroom, to the right of the hallway, completes the curve. Here, windows to the front and rear fill it with light. Upstairs, the first landing has a hotpress, hanging storage area and bathroom. Steps lead to the first floor and what is currently the main bedroom. Painted a pale yellow, it has windows to the front and rear and an en suite bathroom that does not have a lavatory. A second bedroom, this one to the rear, has a window overlooking the original coach-house. A short corridor off the landing leads to a third, larger bedroom, which has an en suite shower room and windows to the side and rear.

A storeroom at the end of the corridor is plumbed and wired and could be converted to a shower room. The fourth and fifth bedrooms face the front of the house and are long and narrowish with shuttered windows. The sixth bedroom, on the second floor return, has a low window overlooking the back garden. The garden begins with a courtyard area dominated by a holm-oak as old as the house. From here, double wrought-iron gates lead to the side of the house. A gravelled area opens out to the garden proper where there are lawns and a bleached lime walk just beginning, after three years, to come into its own. A newly planted hornbeam walk is also displaying healthy growth. The spacious coach-house, which was extended by previous owners to house a boat, has double doors.