Set well back from the busy road, just metres from the strikingly restored Kilmainham Gaol and the entrance to the Irish Museum of Modern Art, in the heart of the village, the former Kilmainham Congregational Church is a pretty period property with bags of character.
It was built circa 1814 by a wealthy mill owner, Obadiah Willans, for his congregation, who were housed in the two-storey houses across the street. The two- to three-bedroom property featured in the pages of The Irish Times a decade ago when the comedian Maeve Higgins, was selling the house, where she and her sisters (who include the Irish Times food writer Lilly Higgins) had hosted an acclaimed secret supper club. She and her father oversaw the building’s very tasteful conversion.
At nearly the bottom of the market it was seeking €550,000 in September 2012 and sold the following year in August 2013 for €440,000, according to the Property Price Register.
Willan’s woollen mill was situated across from the church, on the site of what is now the Metropolitan apartments and its cloth was used by Kilmainham Gaol.
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It is a sizeable and charming home, especially for this part of the city, and its front garden is planted with mature specimen trees including a black elderflower.
The garden is all to the front, in that the south-facing stepped front with limestone terrace is the full extent of its outside space. There is no back garden.
The front door is to the side, where a row of red robin bushes shield the boundary wall and provide welcome russet foliage in fall.
It opens into a smartly tiled hall where there is a perfect balance of rooms front and back starting with a utility to the left and a full-size bathroom to the right. Beyond these is what has been used by the current owners as a third bedroom, a good space with a clerestory-stye window. Across the hall is the library that could also double as a TV room or home office.
Accessed via a set of steps via a coloured glass panelled door is the dual-aspect, open-plan kitchen/living room, a serene and showstopping space.
Ceiling heights exceed 4m and the pair of round-headed sash windows with timber Y-tracery to the front have mirror images overlooking the wild garden next door. This is not part of the property but remains within the curtilage of the church.
The shape of their surrounding arches is echoed in two arched alcoves on the gable wall. It is a supremely symmetrical space that is washed in light. The view to the front is of the raised terrace and lawn. Despite its single glazing, you don’t hear the traffic inside the Ber-exempt home. It’s a space in which any aesthete would love to spend time.
A flight of stairs takes you from the hall up to the first floor where there are two small but perfectly formed bedrooms, both washed in light from the top part of ground-floor windows. The bedroom to the front has an en suite bathroom, which was also the case in the back bedroom but the current owners turned it into a walk-in wardrobe. The plumbing is still intact and any clothes horse will be delighted to discover that there are acres of attic storage space, complete with original trussed beams, to store out-of-season garments. This is where the current owners did a lot of remedial work to the roof while also upgrading the plumbing.
All told it is a very compelling home that extends to a very impressive 161sq m (1,733sq ft) and is seeking €800,000 through agent Owen Reilly.
It doesn’t come with off-street parking; there is disc parking available across the street, but given its proximity to the city centre you won’t need a car to get around.
The Royal Oak, one of D8′s best bars, is a short walk away; the Patriot Inn, across the road from the entrance to IMMA, is now serving top-notch food; and you’re within a very short walk of the Memorial Gardens and the riverside Liffey walk, which will take you all the way into Chapelizod.
