A lovely example of a well-preserved Arts and Crafts house, Barraca in Frankfort Park, Dundrum, stands on a large plot, and although it has been modernised by its current owners, it retains many charming touches that epitomise this type of architecture.
The home is set on 0.65 of an acre of fabulously laid-out gardens with a river meandering past the border. The owners, who are now downsizing in the area, first spotted their “happy family home” in The Irish Times property supplement in the early 1990s and are hoping another family might do the same. They moved in 30 years ago after an extensive renovation, which included insulating the walls, rewiring, replumbing and installing a kitchen. The 220sq m (2,368sq ft) home has a Ber of C2.
Barraca is being brought to market by Vincent Finnegan, seeking €1.85 million.
The approach to the house is a long, gravelled avenue behind electronic gates; there is parking for several cars at its end. A short flight of steps leads to the front of the house, which has many small windows, some mullioned, which is an Arts and Crafts trademark. The exterior is a warm redbrick, soft with yellow hues. A magnificent yew tree, dating from the 1600s and an impressive cedar of Lebanon dominate the front of the house, which faces north.
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The entrance hallway and stairs are painted duck-egg blue and have wainscoting. The bright dual-aspect drawingroom is at the end of the hall with a marble fireplace and lovely French doors opening on to a terrace. A second sittingroom also faces south, with attractive windows, many of which have the original catches from the 1930s.
At the other end of the house is the cosy kitchen with a green Aga; dual aspect, it overlooks both the front and back gardens, and leads into a another sittingroom, fitted out with plenty of shelves. A utility and boot room complete the accommodation on the ground floor.
The house feels deceptively modern and, on ascending the stairs, the period features come into their own with pretty windows and lovely coving in all of the five bedrooms. Two of the bedrooms are en suite and there’s a good-sized bathroom.
Only one of the bedrooms faces north, and it would make for a lovely study, as the entire window is filled with the vista of the old yew. The main bedroom has an en suite, fitted wardrobes and a window seat built into the bay window.
Outside the garden has several terraces, seating areas and small sun traps, as well as banks of rolling lawn set on a slope. It is an exceedingly well-planted space, with shrubs and borders filled with an array of scented roses, hydrangea, camellias and peonies. The back garden is studded with birches, acers, beeches and magnolias. The profligacy of the garden is probably due, the owners think, to its history: the lands here served as a pleasure garden for a bigger house, and would have been well mulched over the centuries.
Frankfort Park is a pretty collection of detached and semidetached homes built in a variety of styles, many of which are also in the Arts and Crafts style. Barraca is at the Dundrum Road end of the estate, close to Milltown, a few minutes’ walk from Dundrum village and the Luas, and close to a host of schools including Alexandra College, Sandford Park and Mount Anville.
