Palmerston Park: €3m: Six is the magic number - Dublin 6 and 6W, that is. Bernice Harrison and Joyce Hickey look at four redbricks in Terenure and Rathmines

As prime positions go, this one is hard to beat. Grianblah, a 1920s detached house at 26 Palmerston Park, Dublin 6 occupies a secluded corner site of almost half an acre. It overlooks the park that gives the road its name.

Temple Road is to the back, Orchard Road to the side and houses on this side of the park rarely come up for sale. While it's an understated house, it's very much a trophy buy in the current Dublin property market because of its location and seclusion.

Tom Day at Lisney is guiding €3 million in advance of the auction on April 20th and he's of the opinion that despite the size of the site, which also has excellent road frontage, and the insatiable demand for development sites in Dublin 6, Grianblah will be bought as a family home. Given its rambling layout of some 244 sq m (2,626 sq ft) and secluded gardens, it's certainly ideal.

It's been a happy family home for over 40 years and the current owners, only the third since it was built in 1928, are now downsizing. Its architect, Manning Robertson, chose red brick, casement windows and a rambling country style for the two-storey house.There are quirky details such as the double doors into the downstairs rooms and the sunken bath in the downstairs bathroom, as the person who commissioned the house was in a wheelchair.

A redbrick porch opens into what is called and sometimes used as a dining hall and all the rooms at this level open off it, so this large room with a fireplace and timber ceiling beams is for practical purposes, a room-sized hall. Off it to the front is the large eat-in kitchen which wraps about the house and overlooks the front and side gardens. It opens into a small study at the back. All this area was last updated in the 1970s so it's due for an overhaul both in style and how the space is used.

Also at the back of the house is a cosy livingroom and a large drawingroom which has access to the garden via a quaint sunroom. There's also a most curious room which the owner believes was originally intended as a library. It has a gallery with its original ladder staircase going up to it and it's easy to see how fantastic it would be if it was lined with bookshelves. Upstairs there are four bedrooms, one with a balcony, as well as a family bathroom and separate toilet. If the house is not bought by a developer, the new owners will modernise and redecorate from top to bottom.

The mature gardens have tall copper beech hedging, mature trees and the house sits virtually in the middle of the site.