How the other half lives: a highly unusual Glenageary home for €1.295m

A house at the top of Adelaide Road in Glenageary, Co Dublin, is as far from standard as it could be – and that’s what caught the imagination of the current owners, who have lived there for 35 years. Eagle Lodge is half of a grand Tudor-style house called Alderley on Glenageary Road Upper, believed to have been built by Tedcastle coal merchants around 1850.

The two houses were divided many years ago: Eagle Lodge has two large reception rooms on the second floor with elaborate period features and very unusual access to the three top floor bedrooms via a minstrel gallery overlooking the diningroom.

Now the 340sq m (3,660sq ft) three/four-bed house is for sale through DNG for €1.295 million.

The couple who own Eagle Lodge have done a lot decoratively to their home in the years they’ve lived there. The entrance hall has a smart black-and-white tiled floor, the breakfast room has blue-and-white wallpaper and furnishings and a room on the left of the front door, used by previous owners as a bedroom, is now a comfortable family room, with half-panelled walls, a window seat, a large open fireplace and timber flooring. A glazed door opens into the garden, which wraps around the house. The agent suggests that this could be a fourth bedroom.

The breakfast room is large, compared to the kitchen, a step up at the side: it has a timber floor and a bay window overlooking the garden. The small kitchen is bright, with an atrium roof over it, units painted mint green and a Belfast sink. There’s a utility room off it. Downstairs accommodation also includes the family bathroom.

Stairs lead up to a small wide landing, with the minstrel gallery looking down into the diningroom: this is a reception room on a grand scale, with a tall bay window looking over the gardens of Adelaide Road towards the sea. Like the drawingroom next door, it has rich ceiling cornicing.

The large drawingroom is the most dramatic room in the house: it’s a long room with a deep bay window at one end and two more tall sash windows looking towards the sea. The ceiling cornicing and centre rose are in excellent condition, and there’s a large brown marble fireplace with tiles inset.

There are three bedrooms and a toilet up steep stairs from the landing, all with built-in wardrobes and all colourfully decorated. The main bedroom probably has the best sea views of the house, across the spire of St Paul’s church on Adelaide Road.

The pretty garden outside has an astroturf lawn, with mature trees and bushes planted in and around it, and a couple of patio areas. There’s room to park several cars in the driveway.

Alderley, the other half of the semi with an address on Glenageary Road Upper, sold for a reported €800,000 in December 2017. The new owner has applied for permission for a major revamp of the house, including creating an entrance on Adelaide Road. Eagle Lodge’s owner doesn’t believe that the revamp will impinge on this property.