Penthouse with sea views for €1.5m

It’s always a risk when using superlatives that you’ll run out of the best words for a time when you really need them. You might say one view is stunning, spectacular . . . and then another comes along to trump it. That’s the case with 34 The Pavilion, one of the penthouse apartments in the development that sits behind and above Dún Laoghaire’s Pavilion theatre and seafront promenade of cafés and restaurants.

It is reached by lift and opens into a bright wide hallway tiled with black and white marble, where the Italian-Irish owners' Italianate taste comes to the fore. Many of the fixtures and fittings are by Italian designers, and they even brought Venetian artisans over to stucco paint the walls. They are now selling through Sherry FitzGerald in order to spend more time in Tuscany.

Sweeping panorama

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The hall is perfectly nice, but I’m not reaching for my arsenal of extraordinary words until I turn left into the spacious living/diningroom, where I’m left pretty much speechless by the panorama that sweeps the length of the room, taking in the expanse of the harbour and seascape, including the sailing boats, ships, Dún Laoghaire’s Victorian clock tower, and Howth beyond.

“It’s like having a front row seat at the La Scala opera,” says the owner as we step out onto the full-length balcony.

“There’s always a show on. And at night,” she adds, “you have the lights of four lighthouses. There is a great sense of calm and a feeling of security.”

Across the hall are three bedrooms, each leading to a second wide balcony, which has a southwest aspect. The master is en suite, and in the current layout, the third and smallest is being used as a study. There is also a utility room and bathroom, and a well-fitted galley kitchen running parallel to the livingroom.

Public transport

The apartment comes with a parking space, though it’s close to the Dart and bus services, all the shops and restaurants of Dún Laoghaire, as well as the excellent programme at the Pavilion theatre, so you may find you seldom need to get the car out at all.

The asking price is €1.5 million, which at 149sq m (1,600sq ft) might seem a little steep, but what we’re really talking about here is a very nice, well-built apartment with a good layout of living accommodation, and an indescribably wonderful, jaw-dropper of a view. If you have the money, that’s the kind of thing that is way beyond price.