When the current owners of Glencar on Templeogue Road in Terenure were viewing the property for themselves, it wasn’t the period details of this lovely Victorian home, the 0.3 acre of gardens or the potential to extend at garden level that held greatest appeal. It was the old coach house at the end of the garden that clinched the deal.
“It was exactly what we needed at the time, and we bought it for the coach house primarily,” says the owner, who is now trading down from this semi-detached Victorian grande dame just minutes from Terenure village.
The reason the coach house was the attractive element was the owner needed a space to care for an elderly relative – a space that was far enough from the main house for privacy, yet close enough to provide the care required. The separate accommodation is now a two-bed 86sq m (966sq ft) converted coach house, designed with wheelchair access – though at no point does it have a clinical feel.
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Like the rest of the property, the attention to detail is one of the most attractive features of this house, set well back from the main road through electric gates.
Purchased in 2005 "from our best friends who were moving locally" the owners engaged architect Brian Donovan to add an extension to the house at garden level. In this space, a vast Poggenpohl kitchen and informal dining area was added which opens out on to a Liscannor patio at the edge of the rear garden, which in turn, extends to 34m (110 ft).
Electric windows
Details here include the overhead electric windows – which removed the need for an extractor fan – allowing the kitchen to be streamlined. Considering it is more than a decade old, it is in remarkable condition and feels brand new, and the tangerine tree which has grown here for a decade is testament to the light and passive heat in the room.
Also at this level are a study – with garden access – an informal living room and en suite guest bedroom.
For buyers, the wow factor will be the reception rooms at hall level, which are generously proportioned and retain all their period features.
The owner, who grew up in the area, remembers as a teenager "hanging out the windows" of an adjacent property, because the coach house next door was, in its former life, the recording studios of Mulligan Records. "We would watch the likes of the Boomtown Rats and Paul Brady come and go.
When they built the extension the owners decided not to extend out to the side; as there is an option to install direct vehicular access to the coach house by removing the trees along the side – as next door have done.
This very fine property In turnkey condition and extending to 305sq m (3,283sq ft) (plus the two bed coach-house) Glencar is on the market through Sherry FitzGerald with an asking price of 2.395 million.
