Killiney mansion with hidden treasure
Killiney Avenue, Killiney, Co Dublin €2.45m
If ever there was a house for a big family, it’s Laragh in Killiney, with 641sqm of living space and almost an acre of garden. The detached Victorian house once stood on much larger grounds, but these were sold off for development some years ago and its remaining acre and the banks of mature trees keep it secluded from its neighbours. The house was fully refurbished 15 years ago.
Unlike the houses on Killiney Hill Road, Laragh’s views are of the Dublin Mountains, the Sugarloaf and the Wicklow Mountains, rather than the sea. On a glorious summer afternoon, there is a clear panorama over as far as the lead mines and the gorse-covered slopes that lead up to them.
It was, say the vendors, a wonderful house in which to grow up, although what was originally a grass tennis court to the front of the house proved more useful as a football pitch and the little chalet that was the original changing room for the tennis court is now used for barbecues.
Despite its size and the Victorian grandeur and proportions of its reception rooms, Laragh feels neither too large nor too formal for modern family life. And although the period features — the sash windows, decorative plasterwork, working shutters and period marble fireplaces remain — there are modern comforts and conveniences too.
Crucially, Laragh is not a protected structure, which gives its new owners a greater degree of flexibility in terms of any internal re-modelling and upgrading that they may wish to carry out.
The principal reception rooms are on the ground floor, with a drawing room, living room and music room all located to the left of the entrance hall, with bay windows overlooking the gardens. The living room is kitted out with a projector and the family uses it for screening movies.
On the opposite side of the hall are the study and formal dining room and adjacent butler’s pantry with access out to the courtyard. Upstairs, there are five double bedrooms, with the two loveliest occupying the bays and making the most of the views.
The master bedroom is en suite and has a terrace on which it must be a pleasure to read the papers or eat a leisurely breakfast. The family bathroom is on the return between the ground and first floors.
The garden level is where the main dayto-day living of the house goes on, with a very large, open-plan kitchen, breakfast room and family room on the garden side of the house, along with a separate television room. Other rooms at this level include a utility room, the sixth bedroom, a sauna and wine cellar, while the mews, which is in need of refurbishment, would be ideal as staff accommodation or a granny flat. A separate lodge is not included in the sale, but may be available by separate negotiation.
There is an anecdote that goes with the house that the original builder buried £500 in gold under the house, £100 in each of its four corners and £100 in the centre where the diagonals intersected.
It’s a nice story, but let’s hope that the new owners are never tempted to dig up the floors to establish its veracity.