While needing complete refurbishment, Dolphin Cottage on Coliemore Road has views worth jumping through a lot of hoops for, writes MICHAEL PARSONS
SEE NAPLES and die! With those stirring words, doddery old dukes bade farewell to wastrel sons setting out on the 18th-century grand tour – the original “package holiday” for toffs featuring classical must-sees.
Despite a history of aspirational comparison, south Dublin’s “Gold Coast” – even with Wicklow’s Sugar Loaf looming in the hinterland like a brooding Vesuvius – isn’t quite il Golfo di Napoli. But it’s certainly the most sought-after stretch of real estate on the entire eastern seaboard. This is the only place in Ireland where many a house can be described, with a straight face, as a villa.
Residents of the area include Gavin O’Reilly, Vincent Browne, Pat Kenny, The Edge and Maeve Binchy. Mixing with that motley crew doesn’t come cheap. Vedi Dalkey property prices e poi muori – of fright.
But Dolphin Cottage on Coliemore Road, which snakes around Dalkey Sound before rising to the appropriately named Sorrento Park, doesn’t fit into that category. The relatively modest, four-bedroom house sits on the seafront beside the prettiest little harbour this side of Positano. Built in 1890 to house “a fisherman with harbourmaster duties”, and acquired by the current owners at auction in 1966, it has just come on the market through the Vincent Finnegan agency, asking €1.25 million.
Forget EM Forster’s advice about always asking for “a room with a view”; here’s a whole houseful overlooking a fabulous maritime panorama with uninterrupted views of Dalkey Island and the Muglins (a little shoal of rocky islets that could have drifted up from the Aeolians), with Howth Head looming on the far horizon. There’s even a lighthouse to keep dreamy Mrs Ramsay types happy. A stone-walled terrace behind the house is lapped by the waves, providing a perfect spot for barbecues or just slinging a hammock.
The house and surroundings have inspired numerous artists and, indeed, Dolphin Cottage wouldn’t look out of place in a Connemara landscape painted by Paul Henry – after one limoncello too many.
Next door to its white and blue traditional façade is “Martha’s Vineyard” – a house rebuilt as a sleek, contemporary concrete pad by film-maker Jim Sheridan, who famously has had problems with rising damp. Together, they present an odd juxtaposition of wildly different architectural styles but, like those pictures of Cameron and Clegg cosying up together, it somehow works.
Dalkey village is a 10-minute walk away. Here the Italian influence fades. The town centre has more the air of a smart Edwardian seaside resort on the Sussex coast with not a “Kiss me quick” hat nor a stick of candyfloss in sight.
So are there any flies in this crème-de-la-mer ointment? Well, the house needs to be entirely refurbished and space (which exists) has to be allocated for the installation of a car-port (essential because there is no on-street parking). This is a project to test the ingenuity of an imaginative architect, which will also, inevitably, entail a tortuous planning application. Oh, and another gripe. At the entrance to Coliemore Harbour, there’s a sign proclaiming “Lobster + Crab 4 Sale”. Who’d have thought it, eh? Txt spk in Dalkey? Tut-tut.
The house will be on open view this Saturday from noon to 1.30pm. Expect to queue. And to hear quite a few utterances of “OMG” as people step through the front door and catch a first glimpse of the view from the hall window.
