Step up to Dalkey garden with space to build

For a house on Torca Road high above Dalkey village, it’s all about the gardens and sweeping sea views: the tiered back garden slopes steeply up to the point where it backs onto Dalkey quarry, with patios at back and sides offering sea views it would be hard to rival.

It’s a garden that suits wild plants, like the spiky phormiums that border paths all around the garden. (Osmunda is the Latin name of a wild fern known as the royal fern.)

The owners have refurbished and expanded the house and garden, designed to take advantage of the views, in the nearly 20 years they've lived there. Now Osmunda, Torca Road, Dalkey, Co Dublin, a 233sq m (2,508sq ft) detached five-bed is for sale for €2.25 million through Sherry FitzGerald.

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Osmunda, Torca Road, Dalkey, Co Dublin

It comes with planning permission for a separate very modern 192sq m (2,066sq ft) three-storey house that could be built beside it; the plans were drawn up by architect Fergus Flanagan, who designed two contemporary newbuilds beside Osmunda on Ardbrugh and Torca Roads, near the corner with Knocknacree Road.

There's scope for new owners to refurbish the garden too says Irish Times gardening expert Fionnuala Fallon.

“This large, terraced coastal garden is very exposed to the elements . . . The trick to maximising its potential lies in the clever use of resilient, appropriate planting and handsome garden structures such as hedges, walls, pergolas and gazebos to offer plenty of shelter and privacy while partially preserving some of those outstanding views across Dublin Bay.

“In particular, it needs plenty of well-situated hardy windbreaks using certain tough seaside plants to allow the owners to develop plenty of sheltered pockets within the garden.  Sunken areas enclosed by raised planting will also help to create shelter.

Garden room

“With such a large garden, there’s also plenty of scope to install a stand-alone, weatherproof garden room or garden office, which would offer a handsome focal point as well as a place to enjoy the space (and those views) no matter what the weather.”

The house’s slightly unusual layout stems from its expansion over the years from bungalow to a home spread over three storeys.

The most striking room is the livingroom/diningroom, which has a blue glass brick corner wall and diagonal picture window with wide views of the sea next to the dining table.

Other accommodation includes a wide balcony at the front opening off the first floor landing, another livingroom that runs from the front to the back of the house and an L-shaped kitchen/breakfastroom opening onto a back patio.

There’s an en suite double bedroom on the ground floor, two more double bedrooms on the first floor and on the top floor, a double en suite bedroom facing the sea with a wide dressing area concealed behind a glazed oak panel. There’s also a small single bedroom that could be a study or perhaps a nursery.

Two storage rooms  opening into the front garden provide an extra 25.5sq m (275sq ft) of space which could be incorporated into the house. There’s lots of room to park in the front garden.