You’d want to be a hardy type to have an outdoor swimming pool in Ireland, not to mention the maintenance budget you’d need – and that’s before water charges hit. Not that agents Beirne & Wise are making the blue-tiled swimming pool in the garden of Glenasmole on Brighton Road in Foxrock a big selling point, instead they are concentrating on the size of the detached period house – 343sq m (3,700sq ft) and its half an acre of mature gardens. The Victorian house which has four bedrooms is for sale by private treaty for €2.5 million.
Downstairs there is a small livingroom or study on one side of the hall and a larger living room on the other. This was once two rooms – the Victorians liked small rooms and plenty of them – but previous wise owners opened them up.
At the back of the house is a small family room, an eat-in kitchen, a utility room and a shower room. The kitchen looks out on a paved courtyard.
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Upstairs in the first return is a large bedroom and family bathroom and on up again off a bright spacious landing are three double bedrooms, one with an en suite and a dressing room. There are two more rooms in the attic.
When the current owners bought 20 years ago Glenasmole had already been modernised and extended. The present owners updated as they went along, notably with new bathrooms and most recently installing a smart new kitchen.
Whoever buys it this time around will also most likely redecorate throughout, modernise and, if they have a growing family, they might look to extend the kitchen. They may also seek to revert the significant alternations made by a previous owner who radically changed the front exterior by removing the original and attractive bay and sash windows on either side of the hall door and replacing them with arched openings and sets of glazed doors.
Glenasmole once stood on a full acre but in recent years the plot was divided and a new house was built to the side. Planning permission was refused last year for a further detached house on the land – the plan was to remove the now unused swimming pool and build another house to the rear and side.
The house is well set back from the road behind tall granite walls and electric gates.