€15m for Gothic manor on 19 acres

A listed house in suburban Shankill, Co Dublin is back on the market - but the buyer is likely to be a developer willing to play rezoning roulette, says Edel Morgan

A Gothic manor on 19 acres in Shankill, Co Dublin, bought two years ago for €9 million, is back on the market with a guide price of €15 million.

Clontra, a large rambling listed house in need of upgrading is being sold by property developers after the planners decided against rezoning the adjoining land.

The five-bedroom house dating from 1862 and grounds will be auctioned by Lisney on October 23rd. Paddy O'Connor of Melbury Developments' Clontra Partnership says the company is selling the property because "it wants to move on to other things".

The guide price is likely to take some interested parties by surprise, given that there is no immediate prospect of the land being rezoned before a new development plan for the area is drawn up in 2010. However, the likelihood is that Clontra will be bought by a developer prepared to play rezoning roulette.

Situated at the end of Quinn's Road, a built-up residential area with a boundary of cliffs on its eastern side, Clontra is about 10 miles from the city centre.

The Clontra estate also comprises a two-bedroom Victorian gate-lodge and 1970s-built four-bedroom house called Cluin House.

Any developer who buys Clontra will be taking a gamble on it being rezoned down the line.

At the end of last year, amid much controversy, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council voted against rezoning the grounds of Clontra to residential use.

Although the county manager Derek Brady was behind the push to re-designate Clontra and other green belts in the county to meet housing needs over the period of the council's development plan 2004-2010, opponents pointed to the loss of a much-used local amenity.

While some have submitted that Clontra's proximity to a DART station makes it a suitable development site, others believe that coastal erosion, access problems and the impact on Clontra House, a protected structure, as well as the sprawling nature of Shankill itself rule against it.

At this stage. only a material contravention or a revision of the development plan 2004-2010 will see it rezoned to residential use.

Shankill € 2.5m: Fairytale house with elaborate pre-Raphaelite frescoes in need of restoration

The Clontra Partnership attempted to get planning permission for 383 apartments on the grounds last year - despite its current zoning as a green belt - but the application was declared invalid due to a problem with the site notice. The developer didn't submit any further planning application.

Clontra was built for Dublin solicitor James Lawson and designed by eminent 19th century architects Sir Thomas Newenham Deane and Benjamin Woodward in their trademark Italian medieval style. They are better known for their work on the Kildare Street Club and the Museum building at Trinity College.

Approached by a long tree-lined avenue, Clontra has a fairytale appearance. It has a cut-granite exterior, protruding bay windows and a trellised veranda under the main entrance. Inside, a grand staircase rises to the upper floor where the principal rooms are laid out around a central hall. Both the drawingroom and diningroom are vast spaces with exposed beams and dramatic vaulted ceilings. The drawingroom has frescoes depicting the Seven Ages of Woman and drawings of birds, flowers and ceilings, all by pre-Raphaelite muralist John Hungerford Pollen. The frescoes need expert restoration, as does much of the house, and the past two years will not have improved the situation.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council says a dangerous buildings notice was served in July last year but at a subsequent inspection found Clontra House to be "adequately secured". A spokesperson said that if there is any deterioration "we would be duty bound to serve notice if there is cause for concern".

There are four bedrooms on the ground floor and a fifth on the upper floor along with a morningroom and study. The ground floor has a kitchen, family room, store room and utility room.

There is also a self-contained two-bedroom wing with a sittingroom. A courtyard at the back of the house has two stalls, a tack room, garage, workshop, three smaller stores and access to walled gardens. There are also three stables, and a barn.

Cluin House is a few fields away from the main house and is a modern two-storey detached house in need of refurbishment.

Paddy O'Connor says the rezoning issue did not factor in Melbury's decision to sell Clontra and it wants to concentrate on other residential developments. He says the company likes to "keep a low profile" about the developments - which include luxury housing at Jim Mansfield's City West golf resort - it is involved with, because they generally sell "by word of mouth, we don't advertise them". Melbury has also been involved in residential schemes in Kilkenny and Waterford.