Harry Lisney, the man who founded the Lisney estate agency, and his wife Amy were living in Shankill, Co Dublin, in the 1930s when they bought land on a country lane between Bray and Enniskerry.
Harry died in 1946 and his widow Amy only got planning permission to build a house high on a hill overlooking Bray in 1947. She built Ruwenzori in 1951 and lived there until her death in 1961.
The current owner grew up on the neighbouring farm and remembers Amy well. She had 25 beehives and wrote a book – The Bee Walk: Being the romance and practice of beekeeping – that is still available online.
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Now, their children grown, he and his wife are selling the detached 195sq m (2,100sq ft) four-bedroom house on 3.3 acres where they have lived for 44 years. Well-maintained over the years – new Rationel windows have replaced old ones, for example – Ruwenzori is a comfortable if dated family home that new owners may well want to refurbish and extend. Named for reasons unknown after Africa’s tallest mountain range, the property is for sale by private treaty for €895,000 through – unsurprisingly – Lisney.
Ruwenzori’s location – for someone who wants rural peace and isolation in easy reach of Dublin – is its main attraction. Ballyman Lane is a very narrow country lane off Ballyman Road, just beyond the junction with Murphy’s Lane; it is a short drive from here to the M50, M11 or Bray.
Sugar Loaf
Sitting on a sloping site with a Coillte forest behind it, the property has panoramic views over Bray town to the sea as well as views of the big and little Sugar Loaf. The views are best seen from the bedrooms upstairs. There are two paddocks and a long lawn behind the house. (The field below is owned by the new Dún Laoghaire Golf Club, which borders Ballyman Lane.)
Accommodation in Ruwenzori comprises a livingroom and separate diningroom opening off a parquet-floored entrance hall. The diningroom has a glazed door opening into the back garden and a wide arch opening into the kitchen. This has a quarry-tiled floor, maple units and its original Aga. Steps lead down to a tiled utility room/wetroom built six years ago which also has space for a walk-in pantry and a shower. A garage at the other side of the house has been converted to a studio/office.
Upstairs, two double bedrooms are both dual aspect and have the best views from the house; the main bedroom has a small en suite shower. Water comes from a well on the property, and it has a septic tank waste disposal system,
Harry Lisney, the man who founded the Lisney estate agency, was a senior valuation officer in Ireland's Valuation Office until retiring at the age of 50. He took over a small valuation office, Franks & Franks, and founded the firm that still bears his name, although bought by John Broadhead when Lisney died in 1946.
