Trading up, trading down

A development of 25 stylish detached houses in a woodland setting off College Road, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16, goes on sale today, with prices around £384,950. It is easily one of the best upmarket schemes to come on the market this year.

Location, as always, is expected to prove a strong selling point for the three-bedroom and four-bedroom homes in the Brehons Chair estate. The 13-acre site runs up to the side of a hill wedged between St Colmcille's School and the beautiful, wooded estate of U2 musician Adam Clayton. Apart from being within easy access of the Dublin mountains, it overlooks the route of the Southern Cross extension to the M50.

Ciara O'Connor, of agents Ross McParland, expects the first 12 houses going for sale at this stage to appeal both to families trading up and to couples moving out of large homes in south Dublin.

The development gets its name from the unusual Brehons Chair on the site, one of six Stone Age portal tombs along the northern flank of the Dublin mountains. The entrance to the site is across a newly built stone bridge over a river, off Kellystown Road. It is planned to provide an electronically controlled entrance to the grounds which will greatly increase privacy and security.

The three house types in Brehons Chair have a different style and layout but all of them have one thing in common: they have superb reception rooms to allow for entertaining on a lavish scale. While they all have adequate gardens, architect Paul Brazil has opted for a great deal of open space and common gardens in keeping with the beautiful setting. Gravelled drives and terraced gardens add to the rural style of the development.

Externally, the walls of the houses are painted in three different colours to give the development a distinctive look. Culfodda Homes have spared nothing to make the houses as comfortable and luxurious as possible. The attention to detail is impressive.

The 2,025 sq ft showhouse has some fine features, particularly two huge reception rooms with broad windows and patio doors opening out on to an American-style wooden deck, which occupies a good proportion of the rear garden. The deck is a wonderful alternative to the more conventional conservatory. All houses come with decks, a feature that works particularly well on this elevated site. The showhouse, costing from £414,950, has an attractive square-shaped entrance hall with stained-glass doors leading into the main reception room.

Viewers are likely to be impressed by the fine dimensions of the room, which is enhanced by nine-ft-high ceilings and also by the sandstone fireplace piped for a natural gas fire.

Double doors also lead into a smaller livingroom which comes with an attractive gas stove.

There is an open archway into a large kitchen, which doubles as a breakfastroom. The kitchen has a terrific range of maple wall and floor units with chrome handles and lots of down-lighters to keep the place bright and cheerful. There is a larger than usual utility room off the kitchen.

The house has a third reception room off the hallway - a small TV room which will offer a comfortable ambience particularly on cold winter nights. This room could, alternatively, be used as a fourth bedroom. There is also a particularly spacious lavatory off the hall with sufficient space for a shower.

Upstairs, there are three double bedrooms, one of them with an en suite shower room. The en suite and the main bathroom are beautifully fitted out.

The down-lighters work particularly well in the main bathroom. Other striking features include rosewood wardrobes and a walk-in hot press.

Culfodda Homes has also virtually completed work on a four-bedroom house with 2,030 sq ft and a price tag of £384,950.

Once again, the architect has come up with an original layout, which has all ground-floor rooms opening off a large central hall with broad windows and a patio door opening out on to the deck. Two other rooms open on to the deck, including a massive kitchen/breakfastroom complete with gas stove in one corner. There is also a separate livingroom and diningroom.

The innovative approach to the overall design is also evident upstairs, where three double bedrooms and a single are all of different sizes and shapes to add interest. The family bathroom and the en suite with the main bedroom are again of a particularly high standard. One of the other bedrooms has a walk-in dressingroom.

The third house type will have 1,968 sq ft including four bedrooms and a reception room with a double-height atrium overlooking the back garden. Prices for this type of house will start at £389,950.