Residential

Size matters on Shrewsbury site for €4.95m

This five-bed, built in a former orchard of the main house when the owners were downsizing, is hidden from the road and has garden on all sides, with trees offering privacy

Bernice Harrison's face
Bernice Harrison
Thu Jun 6 2013 - 01:00

Killowen isn’t a typical Shrewsbury Road house. It’s large at 340sq m (3,600sq ft) and redbrick – as are the other houses on this premiere Ballsbridge road – but it was built in the 1980s and is not visible from the street. A pair of pillars and tall gates beside the Finnish Embassy are the only signs from the road that it’s there.

This seclusion and the size of the site Killowen occupies – 0.7 of an acre – will probably be the property’s strongest selling points.

Also, unlike other houses on Shrewsbury Road, this property is not listed which gives buyers more scope when it comes to future plans.

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The five-bedroom house is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald for €4.95 million.

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The owners built it in what was the orchard in their garden when they were downsizing from the main house.

A screen of tall trees now hides it entirely from that house and it is behind electric gates and accessed via a long drive which can be lit at night.

Maybe as a reaction to having lived in a house with vast draughty rooms, the owners opted for several smaller, more manageable rooms throughout. There are four reception rooms downstairs off a large reception hall as well as a conservatory.

One of the rooms is set out as a large home office but new owners might find other uses for it. All the rooms are bright with large windows looking onto the garden. There’s a laundry off the contemporary kitchen.

Upstairs the five bedrooms have built-in wardrobes and the main bedroom has both an en suite shower-room and an en suite bathroom – new owners will probably reconfigure this space to one big bathroom and a separate dressing room.

Perhaps as a reminder of the house they used to live in, there are some period references, such as stained glass in some of the upstairs doors and in a window on the landing, as well as polished mahogany four-panel internal doors downstairs.

Overall this is a modern house designed with interesting angles and levels so that, while it is large, it isn’t overbearing. It has gardens on all sides as well as a gravelled area in front of the house with parking for several cars.