Two big Dublin sales round off busy year

Ashtown Lodge, a 25-acre Castleknock estate and home of the former owners of Merlin Motors, has been sold for a sum of about €5.5 million.

The property, owned by the O’Reilly family for more than 30 years, evolved as a luxury family compound with its own period house, coach house, gate lodge, indoor swimming pool and stables.

It went sale agreed this week though agent Vincent Finnegan after it originally came on the market in April 2012 for €6.5 million.

Ashtown, which was once the home of the Walton family of musical fame, was most recently offered in three separate residential parcels totalling €5.95 million.

It’s believed the buyer bought the estate outright and has commercial plans for it. It is likely rezoning will be sought to exploit the development potential of the land.

Killiney Bay
Meanwhile, Ashurst in Killiney, once the home of the renowned former Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, has sold for a sum just over €4 million.

The Victorian Gothic mansion, extending to 890sq m (9,600sq ft) came on the market in late August through Savills on behalf of the receiver with an asking price of €3.5 million.

One of the most interesting features of the house is a huge belfry tower, with its own lift, added by the Archbishop to view the skies and Killiney Bay. It's understood the house on four acres was bought by an Irish family returning from Europe.

Once the most expensive rental property in Dublin – at €16,000 a month in 2000 – Ashurst was more recently the residence of the former South African ambassador, Melanie Verwoerd.