College house sees the light from restoration

HOWTH: €1.25mIT'S RARE that a national monument comes up for sale - and the buyers of this 600-year-old building on Abbey Street in the centre of Howth village will be secure in the knowledge that they own something truly unique.

It is almost certainly the first ruined national monument in an urban setting to be converted for domestic use - and the work, overseen by conservation architect Paul Arnold, has resulted in a four-bedroom, light-filled comfortable home that's full of character.

It was originally the college house in the grounds of St Mary's Church and the three-storey building, next door to the Abbey Tavern, has been a crumbling ruin for as long as anyone can remember. The work to bring it back to habitable conditions lasted well over a year - long enough, says Arnold, for the lime plaster that's a feature of the renovation to dry out. As it's a building of importance, as well as the challenge of making it habitable, Arnold's job involved archeological work and an historical analysis of the masonry.

The three storeys stretch over a floor area of 135sq m (1,460sq ft) and it's designed to be lived in from the top down. An oak staircase - oak flooring, doors and architraves are used throughout - leads up to an open-plan livingroom and kitchen area in the high pitched, clearly contemporary, roof space. The sloping ceilings incorporate several tall windows on either side giving bird's eye views across Howth Harbour.

Up at this level, it's all modern with a smart glossy fitted kitchen with integrated Siemens appliances on one side and a comfortable livingroom area on the other.

Down on the two floors below - there are two rooms on each floor - there are reminders in the exposed medieval stone work, the preserved nooks and crannies and the thickness off the walls that this is an ancient building. Two of the rooms have en suite shower rooms (and there is an additional shower room) so it's likely that new owners will use these rooms as good-sized double bedrooms. The two remaining rooms - listed by the agent as bedrooms - could as easily be used as a study and another livingroom. In that sense the space is quite flexible. Access is directly off the street, up a new, curved limestone staircase.

There is no garden at all, not even a yard or rear access, so this is not one for young families.

It's more of a sophisticated townhouse, albeit one with an austere, intriguing exterior.

There is a car-parking space directly outside for one modest-sized car.

It's difficult to figure out exactly what's going on at the front of the building where there is an old shuttered shop, tacked on some years ago to the ruin and now part of the sale of this magnificently refurbished building. Dealing with it wasn't part of the brief to the architect who would undoubtedly have recommended demolishing it as it looks ugly and out of place. New owners might do this or alternatively see it as a commercial opportunity and reopen it up as a shop on this busy street.

The Old College is for sale by Lisney with an asking price of €1.2 million.

The Old College, Abbey Street, Howth

Four-bedroom house with 135sq m (1,460sq ft) of space

Agent: Lisney