A large refurbished redbrick on a secluded garden at a sought-after address in Glenageary has an AMV of €5m. Kate McMorrow reports

Marlborough Road in Glenageary is generally agreed to be one of the most desirable avenues in south Dublin. Detached period houses of various vintages sit far back behind leafy gardens and anyone who bought here in the past 10 years has enjoyed considerable equity growth.

Aclare, one of the largest houses on this road, has come on the market with Lisney, and has an advised minimum value (AMV) of €5 million prior to auction on March 9th.

Aclare's already substantial accommodation has been extended over the past decade by the current owners and everything has been done, from roof downwards, at considerable expense. With 425sq m (4,600sq ft), five good bedrooms, five bath/shower rooms, a flexible games wing and a 0.8-acre garden with tennis court, a family could happily move in without changing a thing.

Privacy is one of Aclare's best aspects - the house is accessed through electronic gates at the end of a long laurel-lined drive. The double-fronted redbrick dates from the 1870s, with all the airy proportions and ornate plasterwork of the period. This is a house for entertaining, with an excellent flow of living space and a diningroom seating 12 to dinner with ease.

To the left off the entrance hall are two formal rooms connected by fold-back doors - one a sittingroom and the other a music room. The sittingroom fireplace is marble and richly decorated with flowers and grapes. Light streams through tall windows into both rooms.

The bay-windowed diningroom opens into a light west-facing sunroom with maple flooring, where the family tends to congregate. French doors open to a vast side garden, with a tennis court across the lawn and tall hedges screening off the outside world.

Accessed from the hallway and sunroom is a kitchen / breakfastroom with custom-made wood units, a hatch to the diningroom and granite worktops.

Behind the kitchen is a fitted laundry, a proper coats cloakroom and downstairs toilet. The owners extended at the back, adding a maple-floored media/games room with shower room and an adjoining guest room, also with shower.

This annex opens to a large walled forecourt and would be ideal for an au pair. Like most houses of its time, Aclare has a couple of half-landings to stagger the staircase ascent.

An arched stained glass window brightens the first return landing, where a double bedroom is fitted out as a home office.

Two Velux windows light the main landing where three further double bedrooms and the family bathroom are situated. The main bedroom extends into the bay and has a side window overlooking the garden.

Fine ceiling cornicing and a marble fireplace add a touch of period elegance. Off this is an en suite shower room with double-sized Hans Grohe shower.

The owners use the adjoining double room with its extensive wardrobes as a dressingroom. A door opens from here to the main bathroom, a pretty room with a tiny cast-iron fireplace and a second door to the landing. Another double bedroom faces the front drive.

Up a few steps is a glorious top floor bedroom with wardrobes, a dressing table and en suite shower room with glimpses of the sea.

Grounds of almost an acre wrap around the house, with the main garden to the side. Flower borders and shrubberies edge a terrace outside the sunroom, with winter cherry and greenery screening the tennis court.

There is ample parking on the gravelled forecourt and in the walled courtyard to the rear.