A detached house on an acre of beautiful gardens in Killiney has all the features of an elegant Edwardian period home, outside and in: there's the black-and-white half-timbered exterior and balconies off several rooms and, inside, an Arts and Crafts timber staircase and handsome timber fireplaces.
But only part of Steeplewood is the original house built around 1900. Mary and Murray McGrath, the couple who moved here about 30 years ago, extended it considerably in 1990. The extension was designed in the style of the original, so while the house is now a comfortable and bright modern home, it’s very difficult to tell where the original ends and the extension begins.
Steeplewood, a 350sq m (3,767sq ft) detached five/six-bedroom house on Killiney Avenue – a road that links Killiney Hill Road to Church Road – is for sale by private treaty through Sherry FitzGerald for €2.8 million.
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The house is sheltered from the road by very tall manicured hedges and mature trees. The owners’ three children used to build play houses under the branches of a huge feathery pine; now a “Blushing Bride” tree stands beside it, planted by a son who married and held his reception in Steeplewood.
A gravelled drive curves around to the small front door of the house. This opens into the original tiled porch and from here into a reception hall that is more comfortable sitting-room than hall; like many of the rooms, it has a deep box bay window with a large window seat. This room opens into the large L-shaped drawing-room/dining-room with a polished wooden floor. It’s a very bright space, with another deep bay window with a window seat. A door from these rooms opens into a large patio at the side of the house.
Good for parties
The house is a good one for parties, with all the downstairs rooms opening into each other. The diningroom opens into a back hall, where there’s a utility room and a toilet, and back into the kitchen in the original part of the house. Like the back hall, the kitchen is floored with striking black-and-white tiles; it has a white oil-fired Aga, polished granite countertops and opens into a wide family room at the front of the house which has a box bay window with a window seat.
There are surprises on the first floor: a very large main bedroom suite on one side of the house, and a library/study on another, both opening onto outside balconies.
The large main double bedroom has an adjacent dressingroom, as big as another bedroom, with French doors onto a balcony; there are striking views from here of the Dublin mountains. There’s a walk-in wardrobe off the dressingroom and a large en suite with a cast-iron clawfoot bath.
The library/study has a large desk in front of a wide box bay window and doors on each side of the room opening on to balconies. There are two more bedrooms on the first floor, both with en suite showers, and three more (two doubles, one single) on the top floor.
One of the double bedrooms opens on to a balcony overlooking the front garden; the other has a small sitting area with a dormer window looking over to the mountains.
The garden is like a beautifully-kept park, with a large lawn, plenty of tall trees and a garden house – a very posh shed – built in the style of the main house.
Steeplewood is within walking distance of Killiney Dart station, and a short drive to the M50 at Cherrywood.
