Anyone who has ever taken the Dart to Howth can’t have missed the big detached houses on Burrow Road, a low-key address that runs parallel to the Dart line and overlooks Burrow Beach, a secret stretch of stand that extends from Sutton Cross all the way to the west pier in Howth.
It also overlooks some of the north city’s best-loved landmarks, Ireland’s Eye and, beyond it, Lambay Island.
Number 9B was one of two houses designed and built by husband and wife developers Nadia and Mack Lennon on the site of a 1929 house which they demolished.
North Shore, number 9B is set on about half an acre of grounds and is situated well back from the road. The property came to market in 2008 asking €4.5million but by then the market had dropped and instead the five-bedroom detached house was rented out as a corporate let.
Tenants have included U2’s drummer Larry Mullen. But the house is devoid of any rock star bling. Instead it feels like a proper family home, albeit one with a very nuanced high-end finish.
The house was built in 2005 with the help of a Canadian building company. The firm’s talents included bespoke joinery and they laid black American walnut floors almost throughout, constructed the timber staircase and the kitchen inside the timber-frame house. They also supplied the narrow frame windows that wash every wall in light, although some have salt residue, the only downside to living so close to the ocean.
To the front, off the spacious hall is a living room accessed via a set of double doors. The dual aspect room has smart window seating in its bay window, an open fire and made-to-measure shelving.
A second sitting room to the rear overlooks a tropical hardwood deck and has a coffered ceiling that would by typical of the north American coastal style that was the builders’ calling card. The furniture here is set around a large pewter-look fire surround.
A third, smaller, sitting room is used by the kids when they have friends round and has a mirrored, circular fire surround that echoes a round mirror hanging on the wall opposite. These are all details that you don’t see in the average high-end Dublin home and it is all the finer for them.
To the rear is the kitchen, a vast double height space that spans the width of the property and overlooks the garden. The units are made of solid walnut and feature a clinker-built effect echoes its coastal setting. The island has a Silstone countertop and a large gas hob. A double height wall of glass frames one version of the vista.
Two sets of double doors access the sandstone patio which leads down to a second, super sheltered level. Laid out in lawn it was deliberately dug down to keep the green out of the wind, which can pick up in winter.
This clever thinking means that the north-facing garden is completely private. It also gets light from both east and west directions. From here you can hear the joyful sounds of people swimming, playing music and lounging and where there are dog walkers from first light.
Access to the beach is via a secret hobbit-like door in the perimeter wall that opens out to the dunes above the sandy stretch.
There are two engine rooms off the kitchen, a laundry room, with direct access to the garden and a second breakfast, light-filled scullery, set up as a breakfast station where the toaster, kettle and coffee maker all live and where everyone congregates in the morning.
Above the kitchen is a mezzanine level that is accessed via a set of steep steps that have a very glamorous Lucite handrail. The view from here is one of a kind. You can see several of the country’s best-known landmarks; Ireland’s Eye, Lambay Island and on a clear day all the way north to the mountains of Mourne. This lofty space has a very special feel and would make a really wonderful home office – if the next owner didn’t find the views too distracting.
Stretching to about 500sq m/5380sq feet the accommodation is set out over first and second floos.
There are four bedrooms on the first floor. All are ensuite. One has an internal bathroom with mirror mosaic on the bath and sink that give it a disco feel.
The master suite is at the top of the house and extends its depth. The bedroom has a freestanding copper cowboy bath as well as a separate bathroom that includes spa-quality fixtures; a Kohler overflow bath, big enough for two to float in it; matching his and hers sinks, and a huge shower stall with a mosaic pattern inspired by a visit to the Belvedere Museum in Vienna and its works by Gustav Klimt.
The property, which is asking €3million through agents Gallagher Quigley, has featured in several TV shows including Fantasy Houses by the Sea with Jenny Faulkner and About The House with Una McQuillan.
The agent is also selling several other properties on the strip; 17 Burrow Road, a six-bedroom semi-detached house of 310sq m, asking €2 million, while a few doors down on the Howth side of the street the Old School House, a four-bedroom detached property is asking €1.1 million. Arundel, a five-bed period house of 270sq m at the Sutton Golf Club end is asking €1.85 million.
