A house for keeps . . . at least for a generation

Househunters have a chance this week to view a collection of homes around Dublin with one thing in common – they have not been on the market for decades. The property boom came and went, leaving them happily occupied by families who valued them as homes. Together, they represent nearly 200 years of family living.

SUTTON, D13 50 YEARS

SEASIDE, as its name suggests, sits right on the sea, with a long back garden giving direct access on onto the beach in Sutton. Located on Burrow Road, the detached cut-stone house last came on the market in 1960, when it was bought for the princely sum of £3,600.

It had been built 100 years earlier by a sea captain called John Sterling Butler who, it’s said, drew a picture of the house he wanted on the sand on the beach behind the site, and insisted it be built exactly thus.

It’s an unusual Gothic-style house with a high roof studded with little windows overlooking one of the most sought after views in the city - a sweep of beach also visible from the road’s most famous resident, U2’s Larry Mullen.

Seaside changed hands several times in subsequent years and was run briefly as a guest house in the 1950s by a Mr Dell who, it is believed, rented out the rooms while he lived in the garage.

After half a century in the same family it is now back on the market, as an exector’s sale. The asking price is €1.1 million. Agent Gallagher Quigley call it “a refurbishment project”.

The house originally stood on a larger site, but it still retains over one third of an acre, and has direct access to Burrow Beach.

Internal features include high ceilings, ornate plasterwork and two reception rooms, one on either side of the house.

The agent says that the beach front location and generous gardens “warrant a more considerable investment” to expand and reconfigure the house to make the most of the views.

As well as two reception rooms, there’s a study, kitchen, utility room , a downstairs bathroom, various store rooms and a pantry. A steep and narrow staircase leads to two separate attic store rooms overlooking the sea. The main staircase leads to the landing, off which are three modest bedrooms and a bathroom. The second floor has two further modest bedrooms. Most rooms have views of Burrow Beach, Irelands Eye and Lambay Island to the rear.

RATHGAR 60+ YEARS

A GOLDEN rowan tree in the back garden of 22 Garville Avenue, Dublin 6, above, was a 50th wedding anniversary present for the parents of the family that has lived there since the 1940s.

It has pride of place in the 190ft-long back garden of a house that is in near original condition, having had one careful owner in the last 60-plus years.

For sale through joint agents Sherry FitzGerald and de Vere White Smyth, it has an asking price of €1.7 million. Original features, like detailed cornicing and centre roses in the hall and drawingroom, abound.

Accommodation in the 254sq m (2,736sq ft) house includes a drawingroom with an original marble fireplace and dual aspect sash windows, a study and downstairs at garden level, a family room, kitchen and a utility room. It has three bedrooms. Several interconnecting rooms could, subject to planning, be converted into a one-bedroom flat with separate entrance.

The garden has a patio area and pear, plum and apple trees. There is vehicular access at the rear.

KILLINEY 25+ YEARS

THE owners of Belfort, above, a large detached house with sweeping sea views in Killiney, have raised their family over the last 25 years and more and are now selling the house and adjoining mews. Belfort sits on an impressive site of just under an acre, on the corner of Strathmore Road and Killiney Hill Road, an easy walk to Killiney Dart station.

Lorraine Maher of Douglas Newman Good is asking a rather high-sounding €3.5 million for the property. The six-bedroom house has been beautifully maintained by owners who opted for an opulent style to suit the strong Victorian feel of this big villa. It has no less than 390sq m (4,200sq ft) of living space, with an additional 79sq m (850sq ft) in the two-bedroom mews, which was built in 1995, and could easily be rented.

The lavish accommodation includes a two-storey conservatory, the ground floor of which acts as the entrance the house; a 22ft drawingroom with tall sash windows overlooking the garden, a separate diningroom, study, family room and large eat-in kitchen.

Upstairs, all six bedrooms are comfortable doubles.

MONKSTOWN 40+ YEARS

A CURVILINEAR cast-iron conservatory designed by William Turner – who created the conservatories in the botanic gardens at Glasnevin and Kew – is one of the most original and attractive features of a handsome 1830s villa in Monkstown, Co Dublin. Number 8 Richmond Hill, above, has been writer and theatre director Christopher Fitz-Simon’s home for 42 years. But with children grown, he and his wife are putting their 279sq m (3,000sq ft) house on the market through Sherry FitzGerald for €1.4 million.

The detached pink villa is at the top of Richmond Hill, one of south County Dublin’s prettiest roads. The first six houses on the road were built speculatively in the early 1800s; numbers 7 and 8 were built last, after the railway to Monkstown had established itself, says Fitz-Simon.

Accommodation in the large three-bedroom single-storey over garden level house includes a library with with French doors to the conservatory, a dual aspect drawingroom at hall level and at garden level, the kitchen, diningroom and two bedrooms. Period details include intricate ceiling cornicing and marble fireplaces. There is a one-bed mews studio outside and an 84ft long garden with a paved patio and a vegetable plot.