Glen Dimplex chairman secures €8m from sale of Howth mansion

Having failed to attract a buyer at both its original €10 million asking price and its more recent guide of €8.75 million, Drumleck House, the five-bedroom Howth clifftop mansion once home to well-connected art dealers John and Gertrude Hunt, has just gone sale agreed for slightly less than €8 million.

Although a record of the transaction has yet to appear on the Property Price Register, The Irish Times understands the house’s new owners are an Irish family.

News of the deal, which was brokered by agent Gallagher Quigley, comes just five months after Drumleck House’s outgoing owner, Glen Dimplex chairman Fergal Naughton, completed his own acquisition for €9,246,550 of 71 Merrion Square, the onetime home of fashion designer Sybil Connolly, from billionaire financier Dermot Desmond.

While both Mr Naughton’s new and former homes both fall under the category of super-prime, Drumleck House is, in terms of its sheer size, the more substantial of the two with 8,400sq ft of accommodation nestling on a vast 10-acre estate that includes ample entertaining space, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and acres of formal Italianate gardens. The Hunts famously played host and hostess in their time at the palatial residence to Jackie Kennedy, Elizabeth Arden and Peggy Rockefeller.

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Describing Drumleck House’s gardens in a report for The Irish Times in 1993, Jim Reynolds wrote: “While the place does not set out to attain the grandeur and exuberance of the Italian gardens of the 17th century, it follows and shows a keen awareness of the principles laid down by [Italian architect] Vignola and the masters of architectural design.”