The owners of an Edwardian house built in 1905 in the Burnaby in Greystones, Co Wicklow, inherited a folder of Daily Telegraph garden columns along with a handwritten list of plants in the garden when they bought Lismara in 1988. The former owners were super gardeners, explain the couple, now selling after nearly 30 years.

“The shed was full of rosettes from the Delgany flower show.” Since then, they’ve maintained the garden that wraps around the house – on nearly half an acre – meticulously.

The couple lived in Greystones and had been thinking of moving closer to Dublin when they spotted Lismara and went along to an open viewing one Saturday. The following Thursday, they bought it at auction for £117,000 – “Way more than planned.” Selling because their children are grown, they’re not moving far – they’ve built a new modern house on what was once a tennis court at the bottom of the garden, screened off with new hedging.

The 267sq m (2,870sq ft) detached five-bedroom house on 0.446 of an acre is now for sale by private treaty for €1.45 million through Sherry FitzGerald.

Original features

It is a classic Burnaby Edwardian, with original fireplaces with tile insets, good cornicing and coving, and triple-bay windows in the double-fronted house. New owners may want to modernise but Lismara is in very good condition.

A covered porch with a timber balcony above opens into a very bright front hall, with lots of light from a window on the upstairs return. The drawing room is to the left, the living room to the right, both with tall, triple-bay windows. The drawing room has French windows into the garden, and the dining room behind it is dual aspect, looking on to the side and back gardens.

The hall leads down to the kitchen/breakfast room, which stretches across the back of the house. A good-sized utility room opens off it as well as a study/play room. French windows open on to a plant-filled terrace.

Upstairs, five bedrooms and the family bathroom open off a large landing. Four are doubles: the main bedroom, like the living room below it, has a triple-bay window overlooking the front garden and en suite bathroom. A single room beside it has French doors opening on to a balcony. Another en-suite double at the back of the house has a dressing room.

The large lawn that wraps around the house is filled with colourful plants, shrubs and trees. There’s a glasshouse and space at the back for a plant and vegetable growing area, and room for several cars to park in the gravelled driveway to the front.