A pretty five-bedroom period house in Rathmines, first bought in 1879 by a wealthy merchant as a dowry for his daughter, is to be auctioned by Sherry Fitzgerald with a guide price of £500,000.

Number 32 Windsor Road, Rathmines is semi-detached and built in the weathered golden brick customary in Victorian Dublin houses.

Windsor Road runs between Palmerston and Moyne roads and, since the latter is a cul-de-sac, there is little through traffic.

The house faces south, is bay-windowed and has a delightfully peaceful back garden behind which is a retirement home for Church of Ireland clergy. The present owners say they will miss the bells of the old listed church steeple chiming the hour. The front is bay-windowed with a small porch leading to a typical period Dublin door. The hallway is wide with beautiful cornicing and a polished mahogany banister curving to the first floor. To the left of the hall there is a bright spacious sitting room and inter-connecting dining room. The sitting room has sash bay windows, nice cornice-work, an original polished floor and a cast-iron open fireplace with tiled inset. Through double doors, the dining room has a similar period fireplace and wood floor. Three or four steps down at the end of the hall, there is a rose-painted breakfast room with an open chimney that could accommodate a wood-burning stove or an Aga. Fitted units house the washing machine and the owners keep their freezer in an under-stairs cupboard.

The kitchen is compact, but has a satisfactory range of good quality glass-fronted units and blue and sandstone tiles. The view from the kitchen window is entirely taken up by a magnificent magnolia tree presently in full bloom.

On the first floor return, there is a double bedroom currently used as a study with a wall of fitted bookshelves and cupboards and a period cast-iron fireplace. A guest cloakroom next door has blue and green stained-glass panels in the door and a matching stained-glass window.

There are three further bedrooms on the first floor. The main bedroom at the rear has a pine floor, cast-iron fireplace and a good range of Oakline built-in wardrobes. The other two bedrooms on this floor, one double and the other a single, also have fireplaces and timber floors.

At the top of the house on the first floor return there is another double bedroom with fitted Oakline units, polished wood floor and a cast-iron fireplace. The family bathroom on this level has a separate shower.

Crowded into the small garden at the front of the house are the well-matured shrubs and flowering plants one would expect to find in a house of this period, including a pyracantha growing over the porch. The back garden is lovingly-kept and filled with very old flowering plants and fruit trees.

There is a sunken crazy-paved terrace outside the kitchen door which is shaded by the magnolia and an overhanging quince tree. Raised brick flower beds and steps lead to the main garden. Here there is a lawn and colourful borders with a winding stone path to a small shed and paved area by the rear fence.