Monkstown home with Sherlock Holmes connection for €1.75m

Tulach, a handsome Edwardian redbrick on a third of an acre of gardens in Monkstown, Co Dublin, was half of a pair built in 1904 for two sisters by their father, a Killiney builder called Conan. At the time, Mr Conan – a man with family links to Arthur Conan Doyle – created an internal door connecting the two houses.

The current owner has lived in Tulach since 1982, but was always aware of the link to the creator of Sherlock. Over the years, descendants of the author – Scottish-born of Irish parents – visited the Monkstown house.

It’s located on a quiet road in the enclave between busy York Road and Mounttown Road/Tivoli Road, close to Vesey Place and De Vesci Gardens. Tulach’s front door faces not on to Knapton Road, but on to a wide sweep of sheltered lawn. A garage at the back opens into a lane off Knapton.

Tulach, Knapton Road, Monkstown, Co Dublin, a 214sq m (2,300sq ft) semi-detached four-bed, is now for sale through Lisney for €1.75 million.

The house, a protected structure, has been well-maintained over the years and has plenty of its handsome period features – leaded window panels, fireplaces with oak surrounds – intact. But new owners will likely modernise it, installing a new kitchen and bathrooms, possibly extending into the lawn.

Butler’s pantry

A redbrick arch over a wide front porch with a quarry-tiled floor opens into a large hall: a small cloakroom off it was once a butler’s pantry. There is also a good-sized downstairs shower room at the back of the hall: the back of this room is where there was once a door connecting to the other half of the semi.

A diningroom on the right has a wide bay window overlooking the front lawn, and a fireplace with a mahogany mantelpiece, brass hood and green tiles inset. It opens into a sunroom at the side of the house which opens into the garden.

The drawingroom off the other side of the front hall has a timber floor, two windows – a deep bay and another unusual triangular bay window – and a corner fireplace with an oak mantelpiece. Both reception rooms have handsome centre roses added after the house was built.

The 1980s kitchen, a good size and in good condition, has a door opening to the rear of the house.

Upstairs – past a tall leaded window – there are four bedrooms, three doubles and a single, a fully-tiled bathroom and a separate toilet. Two of the bedrooms have open cast-iron fireplaces.

Caption: Tulach, Knapton Road, Monkstown, Co Dublin: four-bed Edwardian redbrick on one-third of an acre of gardens has link to Arthur Conan Doyle