Airy and graceful on Howth head

Howth: €1.8m: Rosemount House, a fine detached period house on Howth's Windgate Road, is for sale by private treaty for €1.8 million through Douglas Newman Good.

The five-bedroom family home stands on a third of an acre of southwest facing garden and there's also the attraction of a separate coach-house ready for refurbishment.

The tiled airy front porch opens into a large, elegant nearly square-shaped hall. There are three main reception rooms, a formal drawingroom, family room and a diningroom, all with attractive period details and pleasing proportions. Two of the rooms have fine Victorian fireplaces and the family room opens out to the back porch which has its original flagstone floor.

Also on this level is the kitchen, a utility room and a modern conservatory with access out to the lawn - a virtual must-have in a house that has such a well-loved garden.

Deep bay windows are an architectural feature of the pretty looking 1850s house and this gives extra space and light to several of the rooms. Upstairs the five bedrooms are made up of two very large doubles and three smaller ones.

The main bedroom has a bay window and a cast-iron fireplace. The other large double has a good-sized en suite showerroom and there's also an en suite in one of the other bedrooms. Most of the rooms have built-in wardrobes. The family bathroom is also on this level.

The current owners have lived here for 20 years and no longer have use for such a large house. Rosemount House once stood on more extensive gardens but, around seven years ago, a parcel of the land was sectioned off and a new house was built there. It is quite separate from the old house, particularly now that the garden has matured around it.

Windgate Road is a good step from Howth village but it, and the DART station there, are nevertheless within easy access.

The original stable offers the most obvious scope for development. New owners could consider converting it into a granny flat or au pair accommodation or using it as a games room for teenagers or a home office.