Glendalough House on Adelaide Road in Glenageary was the family home of playwright John Millington Synge; his widowed mother moved there in 1888 when it was newly built, and Synge often stayed there in between his frequent travels to France and the west of Ireland, where he spent many summers in Lady Gregory’s house in Gort and famously on the Aran Islands, where many of his plays are based.
Yeats described the playwright as timid and shy, yet a man whose art “could fill the street with rioters”, and it is believed some of his most famous play, The Playboy of the Western World, was written in one of the back bedrooms at Glendalough House.
The five-bed 231sq m (2,486sq ft) Victorian house has since been updated and remodelled, and comes to the market through Vincent Finnegan, seeking €1.75 million. It retains its charm and period elegance, yet has been comprehensively updated to serve the requirements of a busy family.
Granite steps lead from a gravelled, off-street driveway with parking to a blue door, surrounded with delicately etched original glass, opening on to a hall with walls that are covered, along with the ascending stairs to all the floors and returns, in a dark-grey heavily textured wallpaper.
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On the right is a drawingroom facing northwest with a beautiful bay window and original stained glass; original features such as ceiling roses, coving, shutters and windows are in place, although the owners have replaced the period glass with double-glazed panes. The marble fireplace has a cast-iron inset.
Another reception room sits on the far side of the hall, and the fireplace here is of a grey, mottled marble. The room is dual aspect, with a window overlooking the garden. Under the stairs is a utility and cloakroom, though this is plumbed for a loo so it could be reconverted. The kitchen has a wealth of pale blue cabinets, pretty sash windows, and an alcove where the owners removed an Aga and inserted a cream stove. Countertops are of a cream stone quartz, and there are double Siemens ovens and a remote-controlled gas stove.
A door from the kitchen leads out into a beautiful city-style garden, with well-stocked beds, a tall mimosa tree and terracotta tiles underfoot, and no less than three sheds at the back of the house, all shelved and used to house tools, bikes, sports equipment and fuel.
The first-floor return has a bedroom with an en suite and a loo that is used as the guest WC. On the first floor are three large double bedrooms; the main bedroom has the same style of beautiful bay window as the drawingroom downstairs, and custom-built pair of wardrobes. There’s a shower room outside, and the two other bedrooms on this floor have extensive inbuilt shelving and desks. It was, the owners say, the perfect house in which to live during Covid, as everyone found a quiet place to work.
The final return has the fifth bedroom, which also has an en suite and a pretty cast iron fireplace painted white. Its space, layout and location just up the road from Glasthule village would make it a super family home. It’s an equidistant walk of five minutes to the Dart stations at Sandycove and Glenageary. The owners are downsizing; the veterans of many a project, they have their eyes on another renovation. The house is so close to the Forty Foot and Sandycove that a prospective owner could probably get to the sea and back without needing a Dryrobe.
