Explore the possibilities with a range of homes at Shackleton Park
Lucan, Co Dublin
Asking price: €295,000-€490,000 Agent: Hooke & MacDonald (01) 631 8402
Atimely podcast was released by Dublin City University and the Shackleton Museum in Athy during lockdown. Called ‘What Would Shackleton do?’, it examined how Kildare-born Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton would respond to a pandemic.
In 1915, his ship Endurance became trapped by ice in the Weddell Sea, prompting Shackleton to lead his 27-man crew through what would become one of the greatest ever survival epics. After drifting on ice floes, the men eventually managed to reach Elephant Island by lifeboat, and Shackleton and five others sailed 1,300 km in a whale boat to South Georgia in search of help. The crew was rescued several months later.
When he and his men first abandoned ship, Shackleton allowed the expedition’s meteorologist to take his banjo with him to helped sustain the party’s spirits over the following months with weekly concerts and singalongs.
According to Dr Juliana Adelman, assistant professor of history at DCU, Shackleton embodied optimism and encouraged it in others.
The final episode of the podcast looks at kindness, which Shackleton demonstrated by sharing his rations and giving up a sleeping bag.
The explorer may be the most famous scion of the Shackleton family, but his photographer cousin Jane was also wellknown in her day, as an avid chronicler of the lives of both the rich and the poor in Victorian Irish society.
Jane was raised in Anna Liffey House, an opulent Georgian pile with a mill on the River Liffey in Lucan. Shackleton Park, a new development at the edge of the west Co Dublin suburb, is named after the Anglo-Irish family.
Lucan has transformed since the Shackletons’ time, when it was a spa town and a popular weekend destination for city dwellers.
After the recovery from the property crash, the village experienced a resurgence in residential construction, not least from Cairn Homes, which is building some 1,100 houses and apartments at Shackleton Park,
Launched in 2017, the development has entered its third phase, which consists of 20 homes, most of which are 1,216-sq ft three-bed houses.
The cheapest three-bed is a midterraced design that’s priced from €360,000, with the end-of-terrace version selling for €375,000 and the semidetached style costing from €380,000.
There is a small number of four-bed terraced houses on the market that are priced from €400,000, and one detached four-bed with a €460,000 price-tag.
The sole five-bed semi-detached style available is priced from €490,000.
Also for sale are apartments and duplexes, which will likely prove popular with single buyers or couples purchasing their first home.
A two-bed own-door apartment is priced from €295,000, while the two twobed duplexes available start at €315,000. The two three-bed duplexes for sale cost from €340,00.
The houses at Shackleton Park have a brick façade, a recessed front porch, and Portuguese limestone to the sills and surrounds of the UPVC double-glazed, white-framed windows. To the rear, large glazed patio doors lead to a paved patio and a garden.
Inside, the ground floor has high ceilings and large windows. The contemporary-style fitted kitchen comes with soft-close cupboards and drawers, an integrated dishwasher, oven and fridge-freezer, and a separate utility room.
Upstairs, all the double bedrooms have fitted wardrobes. The main bathroom, downstairs WC and master ensuite have tiling to the floor and wet areas, and there are heated towel rails to the ensuite