Dundrum used to be the place where smart Dublin families went to get a taste of the countryside. These days that’s all changed; there’s the massive shopping centre, most particularly beloved of teens and tasteful 20-somethings, around which have sprung up apartments and townhouses galore.
Go a few roads away, however, and you step back in time. The lovely Airfield House has recently reopened, its 38-acre working farm and gardens, together with café, giving visitors a taste of what life used to be like in these parts.
Not five minutes walk from Airfield, the Victorian Cullenagh, on Stoney Road, is a few decades younger, and speaks of a time when the urban was edging closer, but families still wanted plenty of space and land around them.
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Now Cullenagh sits on about one third of an acre, with a rather magnificent monkey puzzle tree to the front, where there's off-street parking for at least three cars.
Grand reception rooms
Around the sides are three separate gardens, leading into one another, and including a small orchard.
There is also a range of sheds, patios and decking. The house itself is built in a mellow yellow brick, known as Dolphins Barn brick, named for the area west along the Grand Canal, once home to a thriving brick industry.
Inside, the 318sq m (3,427sq ft) of living space is laid out over three floors with generous-sized rooms, including two rather grand interconnecting reception rooms (one with a big bay window), a diningroom, and a bright kitchen with marble counter tops and a wooden-topped kitchen island.
There’s also a sunroom, and French windows to a sunken patio.
Restrained taste
The five bedrooms are all en suite, the master en suite is particularly good, though in some cases the bathrooms have been created by taking "bites" out of the corners of the bedrooms. The bedrooms are large enough to make this work pretty well. There's also an attic room, which would be a brilliant study for concentration, lit by Veluxes.
Cullenagh has been renovated and decorated with the type of restrained taste that means toile de Jouy wallpapers, cream paintwork and rich cream carpeting feature throughout. There is some water damage from missing roof slates, though this apparently will have been resolved by the time the house is sold.
Cullenagh is currently empty, it's a bank sale through Knight Frank, with an asking price of €2.15 million, and there's an open view this Saturday from noon to 1pm. Call in to Airfield for coffee afterwards and see the new baby piglets. You'll be utterly sold.
