Homes in grounds of historic house with Yeats connection

Rathfarnham: from €460,000 The launch of Riversdale, a development of houses on the grounds of the last home of WB Yeats, will be launched on Saturday.

Located off the Ballyboden Road in Rathfarnham at the foot of the Dublin mountains, Riversdale is a scheme of just six houses.Three of them are large detached four-bedroom houses selling from €1.2 million and three are two-bedroom mews houses from €460,000. The main house, a protected building, will be restored and turned into offices. McCarthy Auctioneers is the selling agent. WB Yeats took a 13-year lease on Riversdale House in 1932 and lived there with his wife and children. It was the setting for his last meeting with Maud Gonne in 1938.

The detached houses are 162.5 sq m (1,750 sq ft) four-beds from €1.2 million. They have a lounge, study, open-plan kitchen,living area and a utility room. Two of the four bedrooms are en suite. The mews houses are 55.7 sq m (600 sq ft) with a kitchen, livingroom and bathroom. In 1999 developers Roy Begley and Gerard Clarke bought the Riversdale estate for €1.95 million. The original planning application to demolish Riversdale was refused. Last year permission was granted for the development, built in a period style, with granite sills and kerbstones, a pebble dashed facade, natural slate roofs and a gravel driveway.

An old footbridge on the grounds is being restored and the grounds will be landscaped. Planning permission was restricted to six houses - so there will be no further development on the 1.2-acre site. The selling agents says the detached houses are almost ready for occupation and the mews houses will be ready in February.