Number 114 Rathgar Road has to be one of the oldest houses on this Dublin 6 road. Built in the 1820s, it was, according to its owner, originally a hunting lodge on several acres – so many indeed that the church at the top of the road was built in its grounds. While it has, over the decades, lost its land – retaining only small gardens to the rear, sides and front – the house itself still looks like an imposing period house from the outside.
Inside its principal reception rooms – the only ones the original owner and his visitors would have spent any time in – are cosy versions of the generous proportions seen in big houses of the time.
The white-painted stone lions sitting atop the walls on either side of the house, over the arched timber doors leading to side passageways, hint at its grand past. The house is set back from the road behind a tall hedge and the front garden incorporates a gravelled driveway with parking for two or three cars.
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The wide front door and impressive entrance at the top of a short flight of granite steps is flanked by tall windows on either side, each with patined shutters. The front door opens into a hallway that runs from front to back.
There is a reception room on either side, one used as a formal dining room, the other a living room. Neither room is large but each has a high ceiling and decorative plasterwork as well as a feature fireplace.
While the house is one storey to the front, it is two to the back. The two double bedrooms are up a few steps off the hall. One of the bedrooms has a small en suite. Downstairs there are three much smaller rooms – an eat-in kitchen, the family bathroom and another room used by the owners as a home office.
While the house has been a comfortable family home for its present owners for nearly 20 years, it is likely that new owners will seek to do work – possibly extending to the side or even on both sides to create a bigger, brighter kitchen.
The villa-style house is a protected structure.
The owners are relocating out of Dublin and put the house on the market two years ago with another agent. There was good interest but no sale. It is now back on the market, this time with DNG for €1.1 million.
The back garden is triangular in shape and incorporates a patio area outside the house and a raised deck and custom-built shed at the far end. It is saved from being entirely overlooked by the apartment blocks on either side by the tall, mature trees that line its boundaries.
