Glencairn expected to make £2.5m-plus

Glencairn, the official residence of the British Ambassador and its 35-acre estate at Sandyford, Co Dublin, is to be broken up and sold in four lots on December 2nd. The house and five acres of outstanding gardens are likely to make in excess of £2.5 million.

Joint selling agents Hamilton Osborne King and Savills of London expect to secure more than £25 million for the entire property which is being sold because of the high value of development land and future difficulties of policing the grounds once the proposed Southern Cross motorway runs along the boundary of the site. The house is to be advertised for sale on the international market.

Most of Dublin's leading house builders are likely to be in contention for 22 acres of housing land, which should easily make over £16 million. Another six acres zoned for industrial use have a guide price of £5 million-plus, while the agents expect to secure bids of at least £1.5 million for a modern house with two acres including a walled garden.

The British Foreign Office has stipulated that whoever buys Glencairn must be prepared to lease it back for between one and two years in order to give the BFO time to find an alternative residence. The search for a suitable detached mansion on extensive grounds is largely being concentrated in Dublin 4, but even with the British Government's considerable resources, it will not be easy to persuade any of the residents to move out.

Try as it will, it cannot hope to find a residence of the quality of Glencairn, which is acknowledged as one of the most beautiful houses in the Dublin area. For a house of this importance, it is all the more surprising that it is not listed for preservation.

It is hidden away in woodlands and formal gardens behind a castellated granite arch and high, wrought iron gates. Glencairn was once a large stud farm but with the continuing spread of Dublin, it now adjoins sprawling estates such as The Gallops, which has been under construction for almost a decade. Who is likely to buy the house?

Pat Nolan of HOK says it will probably be acquired by a wealthy businessman who likes to entertain on a grand scale. At £2.5 million, it would be considerably better value than some of the homes sold recently in Dublin 4. Alternatively, it might go to a hotelier who could extend it and capitalise on its primary location in south Dublin.

Glencairn was extensively remodelled by the notorious Tammany Hall character, Boss Croker, when he bought it in 1904. Its unusual appearance stems from the fact that it is a mixture of baronial and American colonial styles linked in to an Irish battlemented tower. The house is also distinguished by a verandah of granite columns running around it.

The interior is as dramatic and well finished as the exterior. The principal rooms are few but noble in proportions. There is an extremely handsome reception hall, large and almost square-shaped, with marble mosaic floor, carved timber fireplace and ornate plasterwork.

Off the hall, there is a small sittingroom with double doors leading into a formal drawingroom of magnificent proportions. The room has a rare carved marble fireplace, tall windows overlooking the soft green lawns and sophisticated plasterwork and wall friezes. The diningroom on the opposite side of the hall is more sombre with panelled walls and ceiling, a matching timber mantel and surround on a tiled hearth and an old-style parquet floor.

A study and another livingroom (formerly used as the billiards room) are now set aside as a private suite for the ambassador. From the reception hall, a broad staircase with carved oak balustrades rises to a galleried landing with vaulted timber ceiling and a stained-glass skylight depicting birds in flight.

There are six bedrooms and four bathrooms on the first floor, along with a former chapel (now used as an office) with carved vaulted ceiling and stained-glass windows.

Glencairn has glorious gardens including 200-year-old Cupressus trees and exotic firs, a century-old lime walk, a more recently planted laburnum walk and a heavily wooded glen. Two headstones in one corner of the grounds mark the burial place of Boss Croker's famous double Derby winner, Orby, and his dam, Rhoda B.