Adding on at Airfield

Upper Kilmacud Road in Dundrum, Dublin 14, makes for interesting viewing. The original central part of the house was a two-storey cottage dating back to the mid-1700s and was designed for our more diminutive forebears with extremely low door openings and ceiling heights. Later additions to the house, up to the early 1900s, vary in their grandeur, and some of the more stately rooms on the upper floor now lie in a state of faded splendour.

Realistically, whoever buys Dromartin Hill will probably do so more for the potential of the overall property than just for the house, which needs substantial renovation. It remains to be seen whether a new owner will look for planning permission to knock and rebuild or to scoop out the centre of the house and renovate. On half an acre of gardens, it was once part of the grounds of Airfield House, which now surrounds it on all sides. An executor sale, the house has been owned by the Dudley family for 50 years and has a price tag of €1.1 million through Sherry FitzGerald.

The ad hoc expansion of the house means that the layout is warren-like, with rooms off rooms. The main entrance porch of the house, with its chequered tiles and sweeping staircase, is one of the grander additions but leads into a dark, very low-ceilinged hall. Off this hall, there’s a good-sized livingroom with a door to an old lean-to-style sunroom. The livingroom leads to a diningroom which in turns leads to a very dated kitchen. A corridor off the other side of the entrance hall has a big study and a utility room. Upstairs, there’s one stand-out room. It’s painted wedgewood blue with high ceilings and big sash windows and has a lovely blue and white ceiling rose and the most magnificent brown marble mantlepiece. While this is currently furnished as a bedroom, it was once used as a drawingroom and had views out over Dundrum towards the mountains. The views have changed slightly, in that you can still see the mountains but in front of them are Rockfield apartments and the busy new road into Dundrum. There’s another big green bedroom at this level with a white ornate fireplace and a view of Airfield house, and two smaller bedrooms, as well as two bathrooms.

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The gardens around Dromartin Hill mean that it is set back off the busy roads around it. They are are mainly set in grass with some planting and mature trees and there’s a long gravelled driveway up to the house. The gardens are zoned F for open space but residential development may be considered.

The owners gave their name to the nearby "Dudley's field" which they sold to the Airfield Estate some years ago. The estate, in turn, sold it to a development company called Cicol, run by brothers Ciaran and Colm Butler, at the height of the boom. Cicol was refused planning permission by An Bord Pleanála in 2007, following local opposition, for a mixed-use development with apartments, a health spa, creche and leisure centre. The land was repurchased last year by the Airfield Estate from NAMA. Although Airfield is currently closed for renovation, it will reopen later this year with enhanced visitor and teaching facilities.