ROSE DOYLEexplores in Raheny

RAHENY: €1.2M

THERE IS an air of grand desolation about Bettyglen House in Raheny, Co Dublin. Protected from the gaze of surrounding housing developments by high trees and dense growth, it is Gothic and gabled with countless windows. Built in 1910 by the Jameson family, it has no less than 50 rooms in a floor area of 12,000 sq ft (1,200 sq m). Just 1.1 acres is all that remains of its original 18 acres.

Now for sale at €1.2 million through Sherry FitzGerald, Bettyglen House has been more or less unoccupied for 30 years. It has planning permission for conversion to 11 apartments and six duplexes and is zoned Z1, meaning it can be put to medical, hostel, educational or church use as well as residential.

The house has changed hands a number of times since it was built by George Jameson in 1911 for £12,000. Later it was bought by the Boylan family and then by businessman and political activist WJ Ahern. In 1979 the gardens were sold for development while the house contents, mainly 19th-century French and English furniture, made a record £333,000 at auction.

Full of nostalgic curiosities but needing some serious TLC, the house is entered through an arched oak front door that opens into a room sized hallway with one of its many fireplaces. Corridors are long, everywhere, and highly atmospheric. It doesn’t take much to transport yourself past their silent arches and doors into a moody period film – and Bettyglen House has, indeed, been much appreciated through the years by film companies and even been used, in recent weeks, for filming by the BBC. The library is particularly fine, with an 8ft (2.4m) box window and matching contour at the other side of the room. It leads to a snug-like bar that opens, through a concealed door, into the main living room. This ground-floor level has five doors leading to the grounds.

The original kitchen, unused for aeons, has white tiled walls and quarry tiled flooring; the wide main staircase has a leaded window with the Jameson crest and motto Sine Metu(without fear); and a couple of first-floor bathrooms have original, Heath Robinson-like plumbing and baths that are at least 3ft (1m) deep. The attic-like rooms on the top floor have by far the best views, reaching over the roofs of surrounding developments to give vistas from Howth to Dalkey and the Bull Island sanctuary.

Bettyglen House, Raheny, Dublin

50-room home with development potential

Agent:Sherry FitzGerald