Sandymount: €2.75mPink and castellated, with an entrance door out of a Hans Christian Andersen tale and vaulted windows, Castle Ville, 12 Sandymount Green, Dublin 4, has charm, location and history.
It was built by one James Beckett in the early 19th century, not long after the area's name changed from Brickfield Town (it was the centre from which Georgian Dublin got its bricks) to Sandymount. It has a literary pedigree too: Robert Corbet, a relative of WB Yeats, lived there in the 19th century.
Then, after a period when it was a school, it became home to the writer Frank O'Connor in the 20th century.
Original features abound and include windows, doors, floors (either decoratively tiled or in dark stained original timber). There are also the nooks and interesting quirks a distinctive house like this acquires with age.
There are the vaulted windows in the first floor drawingroom which directly overlook Sandymount Green, the ship's cupboards which have become the kitchen's built-in units and, on a table in the library/study for prospective buyers to view, the subdued yellow parchment of Castle Ville's title deeds. To the rear a 150ft long, lawned, old-style garden stretches through the shelter of high trees and walls, clematis and ivy. There are four bedrooms (one of them en suite), two reception rooms and a kitchen/ breakfastroom in a floor area of 227sq m (2,400sq ft).
A large, unused room with high, sloped-ceiling off the hallway (originally a greenhouse) could convert to a studio with mezzanine sleeping quarters.
Agent Sherry FitzGerald will auction Castle Ville on October 18th, with an AMV of €2.75m.
The vendor, who has lived in Castle Ville for 25 years, has opted for a decor of strong blues, reds and greens which create an intimacy. Doors, knobs and keyhole covers are for the most part original. The kitchen, off the black-and-white tiled inner hallway, is in blue with a terracotta tiled floor and low windows overlooking the garden.
In the burgundy painted library/study there are French windows to the garden, a picture rail, ceiling rose and original floorboards. A ground floor sittingroom has tongue-and-groove panelling, windows to the side and front, and a cast-iron fireplace.
The main, en suite, bedroom is on the return and has a pair of sash windows overlooking the garden. The brown-tiled family bathroom is also on the return and has a skylight. The other two bedrooms (one in use as a drawingroom and with a period marble fireplace) are off the first floor landing.
