Scholarly suburban retreat for €875,000

Number 43 Frascati Park, just off Mount Merrion Avenue in Blackrock has been home to Belfast-born Prof Malachy McKenna since 1983, when he won a scholarship to study Celtic Languages at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Now retired and moving permanently to Stockholm, McKenna has placed his 149sq m home on the market through estate agent Sherry FitzGerald with an asking price of €875,000.

The property, dating from the 1930s, is well maintained and flooded with light – thanks to large windows and a sunroom which McKenna added 12 years ago.

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The reception rooms have high ceilings and narrow-plank oak flooring which have lasted 33-years “as we never wore shoes in the house” says McKenna. The front room has an attractive feature fireplace with tile inset; the fireplace in the rear reception room has been taken out. This room opens into the sunroom.

A breakfastroom links the hallway to the kitchen and new owners have scope to amalgamate this, the kitchen and the sunroom as neighbours have done, to create an open-plan kitchen-cum-living area with a sunny southerly aspect.

Garden

The 20m-long rear garden is totally private and accessed from glazed doors in both the kitchen and sunroom.

While most of the plants are dormant now – trellises are lined with buds of Jasmine, climbing roses, Passiflora and Japonica, all overlooked by a giant pear tree.

“In the summer, the patio has sun all day long and it is where I have breakfast and dinner,” says McKenna.

New owners have scope to develop the garden further, taking advantage of its privacy.

The house has four bedrooms, the largest is light-filled and spacious.

The family bathroom is small for modern living, but the potential is there to extend into the good-sized landing to create a larger room, as is the opportunity to convert the garage downstairs into a further bedroom or playroom – as neighbours have done.

Number 14 Frascati Park, a refurbished house with converted attic sold in March 2015 for €970,000.