£2.2m sale sets second-highest record for house

A detached five-bedroom house on half an acre of garden at Temple Road, Dartry, has sold for £2.2 million at auction, £700,000 more than the guide price which had been put at £1.5 million.

This is the second-highest price paid at a house auction in Dublin. The vendors had themselves set the record with the purchase of their new house, Mount Mapas, a Victorian villa at Vico Road, Killiney, for which they paid the all-time record price of £2.3 million at auction last year.

Four parties chased the Dartry property at a Lisney auction yesterday after bidding opened at £1 million. Described by auctioneer Tom Day as the finest house to come on the market in Dublin in recent years, Atherstone, a Victorian three-storey, had been meticulously refurbished by its owners over the last decade. Yesterday's price confirms Temple Road's reputation as the most exclusive road in Dublin 6. Its residents include the multimillionaire Mr John Dorrence, former chairman of Campbell's soups, and former government minister, Ms Gemma Hussey.

Atherstone is located on the best stretch of the road, where the houses are set well back in extensive gardens. The redbrick and cutstone house is approached by a gravelled drive, and a restored two-bedroom coach house is at one side of the house. The front door opens into a gracious hallway with ornate ceiling cornices and a fine plaster archway leading to an inner hall where there is a magnificent staircase. A handmade V'Soske Joyce carpet continues through to two large interconnecting reception rooms.

The ground floor also has a fourth reception room, an expensive fitted kitchen and utility room, a bedroom and shower room and a large conservatory, and there are four double bedrooms upstairs.