Royal redbrick on Clontarf's Castle Avenue

This listed Victorian house in Clontarf has it all, including a cottage at the end of the garden. It is for sale at €4.5m, writes  EDEL MORGAN.

AUGHEDEN, 27 Castle Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin 3, was built in 1880s. It is next door to the house where musician Phil Lynott rented a flat for a period and wrote some of his early songs.

When the owners bought Augheden - along with the house next door - it had fallen into disrepair and took two years to redevelop, with all the headaches involved in restoring a protected structure.

The result is impressive and, although sympathetic to the period of the house with new wooden sash windows, cornicing and ceiling centre roses, it doesn't fall into the trap of being slavishly mock-Victorian.

The 371sq m (4,000sq ft) four-bedroom house is for sale by private treaty through Douglas Newman Good with a price tag of €4.5 million and has a dinky 46sq m (500sq ft) cottage at the bottom of the garden.

The colour scheme throughout doesn't deviate much from cream and beige but the effect is understated and elegant.

At the garden level there are two good-sized reception rooms; one with a huge bay window and unusually high ceiling; and another less formal space.

The kitchen is well executed - with classic cream handmade units providing plenty of storage, and a free-standing food preparation area (a good alternative to a kitchen island) with a silestone (quartz) worktop.

A foodie might extend the kitchen into the dining area and use the substantial extension beyond the kitchen for eating or relaxing in.

Other rooms at this level include a utility room with a Belfast sink and lots of storage, and an onyx mosaic bathroom, with wood panelling and an oversized contemporary sink.

At the next level, the main bedroom is accessed through its en suite, a lovely space with a central wood-panelled Villeroy Boch bath, a wall of wardrobes, a shower and a built-in Aquavision TV with waterproof remote.

The bedroom has floor-to-ceiling doors that open onto a gravelled roof that would need to be cordoned off if there were children in the house.

At hall level there are two formal reception rooms, one a lovely bright dual-aspect room at the front of the house where you can see the sea out one window if you peer hard enough. The other room is set out as a diningroom.

Upstairs there two double bedrooms and a single - one of which is en suite and another connected to the family bathroom which also has a built-in TV.

At this level there's a quirky little conservatory to the side of the house. The most curious area in the house is a 19th century architectural quirk - a stair up to tiny landing, with a window, at the top of the house. Under the planning conditions, the garden cottage can't be rented but can be used for family or staff.

The garden isn't huge but is very pretty, with a flagstone path, immaculate lawn, fringed by plants, and tallish trees giving a feeling of privacy.