Shankill is one of those suburban locations with a good stock of large period houses, surrounded now by modern housing estates built from the 1950s onwards. Some of the old houses have disappeared, victims of the relentless outwards spread of the city boundaries. Corbawn was demolished by the county council in 1988 to make way for the Shankill bypass, Clonasleigh was replaced by a shopping centre and Dorney Court is now the location of a new Garda station. Shanganagh Castle is an open prison.
Some of the period houses close to the sea are still lived in by families, although almost inevitably, many of these will see some form of development in years to come. At Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, where the original Shankill village was sited, the former Christian Brothers' house has planning permission for 43 apartments and is due to come on the market next month.
Suburban villages which have managed to hold on to their rural aspect are few and far between. Before the Wexford bypass was opened, Shankill was just part of the traffic jam on the way to Bray. Now it is a close-knit community which is working hard to restore the village's former character. A team of local volunteers turns out each evening after work to sweep up litter. Another group runs the tourist information office from Brady's pub. This was set up by the Chamber of Commerce and is now run by local resident Joe Murray. There's a very sociable local tennis club, a jobs club which runs errands for old folk and a ramblers group for exploring the hills and boreens on the western edges of the village.
The three Shankill churches, St Anne's, Rathmichael and Crinken, are commendably inter-linked. Reverend Fred Applebe of Rathmichael Church of Ireland church organised a sponsored walk of the Wicklow Way last April to raise funds for St Anne's new parish resource centre and Crinken church held an art exhibition for the same cause. With a name like Shankill (and even a Falls Road in the area), its hardly surprising that the residents are in close contact with their Northern cousins. The Shankill/Shankill club, founded under the auspices of the local community association, regularly exchange visits and has a joint children's choir which has performed at Dublin Castle and before the new Northern Ireland Assembly. Since the Wexford bypass was built and juggernauts no longer thunder through, life has slowed down and the village has become a more attractive place to live.
Old-fashioned street lighting, cobbled pavements and tubs of flowers everywhere have increased Shankill's chances of challenging Malahide in the Tidy Town stakes. They won "Most Improved Village" in 1997 and the "Endeavour" award the following year. The Shanganagh Lounge has had a facelift and an authentic Chinese restaurant recently opened for business upstairs. More than any other factor, the revamped pub has been a catalyst for change in the area and, like the Rovers Return in Coronation Street, is the most popular meeting point for residents.
The name Shankill applies to a wide area stretching from Loughlinstown to Shanganagh Cemetery and encompasses much of Rathmichael on the inland side. Indeed, the original Shankill was located where Rathmichael now stands in all its upmarket splendour. The present-day village was known as Tillystown, after a benevolent landowner who re-housed smallholders evicted in the 1860s by the notorious landlord Sir Charles Domville.
Some of the cabins built then were replaced by local authority cottages in 1910; these are now among the most desirable properties in the village. These pretty granite and pebbledash houses are not always in great condition, but have huge gardens and old black-leaded kitchen ranges ripe for restoration. Agents have waiting lists for these cottages and prices have gone beyond first-time buyer level.
The only agent operating in the village, Anne Kelly, sold one of the New Vale cottages last month for £250,000. It was in poor condition, but had "the makings of a site" in the garden. Another on Lower Road, completely renovated, sold earlier last year for £230,000.
Shankill has a good selection of three and four-bedroom semi-detached houses on roads running down to the sea and off the main Bray Road. Corbawn Lane and Quinn's Road are the main residential arteries. Houses on estates such as Corbawn Wood, Clanmawr, Dorney Court and Eaton Wood, which could be bought for under £70,000 in 1996 are now approaching the £200,000 mark. Douglas Newman Good sold 108 Eaton Wood last October for £169,000. Sherry FitzGerald achieved £220,000 for a four-bedroom semi at Clonasleigh last July and £185,000 for one of the Corbawn Wood houses before Christmas.
Off Quinn's Road, the houses are slightly older and more spacious, a mix of traditional semis and dormer bungalows sheltering behind well-matured gardens. A four-bedroom semi sold for over £250,000 here last year, over £300,000 was achieved in the newer Shrewsbury Hall and a 1940s bungalow on Quinn's Road fetched in excess of £200,000.
Of the newer developments off the Bray Road, Castle Farm has shown the greatest growth. The popularity of this estate built around seven years ago is due to the pleasing mix of redbrick house-types and interiors which have unusual features. Dougas Newman Good sold here in October last for £160,750 and a three-bedroom terraced house is currently on the market with Sherry FitzGerald, asking £185,000. Close by, Crinken Glen houses sold for around £150,000 last season. Kentfield is a development of large four-bedroom detached houses which sold briskly when launched two years ago by Ross McParland. Closing prices were around £310,000.
Bargains are no longer easy to find in Shankill. First-time buyers are targeting Rathsallagh, a sprawling council estate beside the DART station where three-bedroom houses are selling for around £125,000. Many of the tenants have bought their homes now. It has an unbeatable location near the beach and the rail station.
