Hillside house with big bay views

HOWTH: €3.9M:AT THE TOP end of the property market elevation is the still the name of the selling game. As a result of the financial storms the alpha buyer wants a setting that offers a physical sense of protection as well as something that still allows you the luxury of looking down on the neighbours. It's the post-boom equivalent of the round tower that protected monks from the Vikings.

Danes Rock is one such well-named address. The detached, four-bedroom house is on Howth’s Baily, a secret society of gated homes, all set high on the hill above Carrickbrack Road, hidden from view yet boasting marvellous vistas.

The setting is spectacular. The property sits on a hectare of mature gardens, pine and eucalyptus trees, and backs onto great boulders of bare lichen-covered rock that form the backdrop to the rear of the house. The front faces due south and looks across the crescent of Dublin Bay, the shipping channels, Bray and the Sugarloaf.

This house is 13 years old it and is built in the original walled garden of Danesfort Hall, which sits further up the hill. This explains the mature setting and the greenhouse, the last of three that originally sat on the plot.

The house is American at heart and ideal for those who want to be king of the hill and top of the heap. The owner spent time in the US and that continent’s house style is evident throughout the layout and decoration. It is some 360sq m (3,874sq ft) and has an asking price of €3.9 million through agent Property Team JB Kelly.

A large entrance hall with open gallery to the landing above is framed by two pairs of double doors. One opens into the drawingroom, a very well proportioned room with 9ft high ceilings and dual aspect floor-to-ceiling windows that open onto the main patio area. A games room is to the rear. Across the hall, another set of double doors leads into the diningroom, again with a panel of floor-to-ceiling windows that open onto another terrace. A light well offers additional lighting and a door leads from the diningroom directly to the kitchen, another Americanism.

More double doors lead from it to the den, a room with a limestone-clad chimney-breast and a limed pitched pine ceiling through to the sun lounge and its picture windows. All of the reception rooms interconnect making this a great house for grand scale entertaining.

The maple kitchen has terracotta-coloured unglazed floor and speckled granite counter-tops. There’s also a Belfast sink and integrated appliances. The kitchen looks onto the rock and also offers sea views.

Warm American red oak floors throughout lend a real sense of flow to the house. But some of the decorating touches, in particular the reception window treatments, could do with a little nip and tuck to really make the scenery sing.

There is an abundance of bathrooms and all four bedrooms are en suite.

The house is coming down with sea views. You can even see the sea from the bed in the main bedroom suite, which has an en suite with corner Jacuzzi bath, separate shower and a walk-in wardrobe. The second double overlooks the rock side of the house.

Bedroom number three is a twin room – the en suite here includes a sauna and an interconnecting door into bedroom number four. This room has a beautiful bay window and floral stencils by botanical illustrator Susan Sex, best known for her wild flower postage stamp work for An Post.

There are rocky walkways and suntraps scattered through the grounds and a detached double garage. Howth stone clads the front walls and Bradstone is set into the multiple terrace and patio areas. These were colour-keyed to sit well with the rock behind.

Danes Rock, Baily, Howth, Co Dublin

Spacious modern house on a hectare with great sea views

Agent:Property Team JB Kelly