DUBLIN 4: €850,000:In the 50 years since they bought it, the owners have restored this Victorian house and its generous gardens to its former splendour
IT IS HALF A century since the vendor paid £1,725 for Barness, 11 Ormond Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, in 1961. “We bought from Good and Ganly and worked hard to beat them down from an original asking price of £1,900,” she says.
Completely refurbished, sensitively cared for and filled with the lives of a large family since then, number 11 is now for sale by private treaty through Lisney with an asking price of €850,000.
A two-storey, redbrick terraced house with sash windows, Barness still looks much as it would have when built in 1881.
It is in meticulous order and the 185sq m (2,000sq ft) floor space is divided into four bedrooms, three reception rooms and a kitchen cum breakfast room. The gardens at the front and the rear, which were landscaped for easy maintenance 25 years ago, have matured delightfully. An 18th-century sundial in the front garden sits in pleasant symmetry with the bushes, plants and cobbled stones all around.
Like many Dublin 6 houses in 1961, Barness had been divided into flats. It needed a complete renovation, according to the vendor. It had a brown interior, suspended pieces of wood with hangers for wardrobes and black gas cookers in several rooms and no damp course. “Luckily, the original features were intact,” she says.
Slowly, with loving care, the new owners returned number 11 to its original gentle grandeur and balanced proportions.
The use of palest stone and white throughout helps to emphasise ceiling heights and feature arches, as well as splashes of colour from the red and blue leaded window on the return. White curtains add drama to an arch in the reception hallway, which has a dado rail and a shining brass handrail. The stair banisters, with a mahogany rail and black rods, add a flourish to the view through the arch.
Another arch, added by the vendor, divides the traditional-style drawing and dining rooms. The coving in these rooms is simple, the centre roses delicate and the windows front and rear give garden views. A high, black marble fireplace in the drawing room burns solid fuel.
The rear family room has a cast-iron fireplace and windows that look onto a patio and ivy-clad walls. The large, bright kitchen cum breakfast room has full garden views and, a range of kitchen fittings in a white-and-blue colour scheme.
One of the bedrooms, together with a shower room, is on the hall floor return. The others, including the main, front-facing bedroom with handbasin, are off the first floor landing.
11 Ormond Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 4
Stylish four-bedroomed period house with fine gardens landscaped for easy maintenance
Agent: Lisney
