Space and craft for €1.1m
An arts and crafts brushed home in Dublin 18 is set up for the outdoor life, writes Mark Keenan
Kilshannig
Crinken Lane, Rathmichael Dublin 16
KILSHANNIG off Crinken Lane in Rathmichael on the Co Wicklow border might just be one of the youngest homes in Ireland with lineage in the Arts and Crafts style.
The trend for hand-crafted styling, which kicked off in England with the wallpaper of William Morris in the mid 19th century, soon translated into furnishings and later into home design.
Arts and Crafts brushed homes began popping up in Ireland through the 1910s and 1920s before tapering out of fashion in the 1930s. Kilshannig was completed in 1948, making it an autumn child of the genre, currently experiencing a revival in popularity in line with the baker/maker movements and the prevalence of steampunk styling.
The house has been in the same family since the 1960s. Given its location at the foot of Katie Gallagher Hill and two thirds of an acre of ground attached, it has not surprisingly hosted an energetic outdoor family life with safe room to roam for children — an ingredient often lacking in many locations today. Its stream has eels and its pond is fully frogged. The current owners kept horses and one of the two double garages on the property used to be in stables.
The house is equidistant from Shankill beach (a half hour walk away) and the Dublin foothills (the top of Carrickgollogan Hill is the same run in the other direction).
The house is more than three times the size of an average semi with 3,705 sq ft of living space for general living and 355 sq ft in the basement games room, allowing plenty of space (out of earshot) for loud and large teenage assemblies. Its most pleasing feature is a huge open reception hall and dining room with a grand sweeping carved staircase running up to a gallery landing. There’s an open fire in this hall reception which is also great for Christmas and home functions.
There’s a drawing room facing south and west, a study, guest suite and kitchen on the ground floor. The garden level has boot room and utility clean up spaces. Upstairs, the gallery landing opens on to a covered west-facing balcony (the house is generally west facing), with the principal bedroom suite and three more family bedrooms at first-floor level.
There’s a landscaped garden, and a yard with the two aforementioned double garages and a woodshed. You can stretch up to five bedrooms, or four if you want an extra study. St Gerard’s school is a few minutes’ drive away along Ferndale Road and Holy Child and Loreto Dalkey are on the DART from Shankill which has sailing, tennis and lawn bowls.
The house was placed on the market a number of years ago and then withdrawn.
Now it is back for €1.1m.