Actor Alison Doody and ex-husband Gavin O'Reilly are selling their former home Bartra House, once the most expensive home in Dublin, writes EDEL MORGAN

Actor Alison Doody and her ex-husband Gavin O’Reilly, chief executive of Independent News and Media, are putting Bartra House, the Dalkey mansion they bought in 1996, up for sale.

Joint agents Knight Frank and dVW Smyth are asking €3.9 million for the 850sq m (9,149sq ft) Victorian house on Harbour Road, which has a dramatic setting on more than two acres of gardens sloping down to the rocky shoreline.

Doody and O’Reilly caused a stir when they paid £1.95 million (€2.47m)for Bartra in 1996 – the highest price ever paid at auction for a Dublin home at the time. *

The Victorian house was built for one of the Earls of Carysfort as his summer villa. It stands on a site between Bartra Rock apartment development and a striking blue modern house.

As you walk up its sweeping gravel drive, Bartra House is an imposing sight, although its exterior has suffered some battering by the elements, with paint peeling off some of the windows and a Victorian orangery in need of repair.

Inside the five-bedroom house is a very different story. The look is faultless and elegant. On one side of the grand entrance hall is the drawing room, one of the highlights of the house – it is dual aspect with high ceilings, exquisite plasterwork and breathtaking views out to Dublin Bay, the Kish and Dalkey Hill through two sets of bay windows.

On the other side of the hall is a dining room with a panelled ceiling and a colonnaded marble fireplace featuring a centre plaque by Frederick Darley (1764-1841) an architect, builder and stone cutter who was involved in the development of Mountjoy Square.

Off the inner hall – which features a spectacular arched leaded window on the 10ft high stairwell – is a small cream and white study with French-style furniture that leads out to the old orangery.

There’s a smallish blue and white kitchen with a pantry and a large triple-aspect family room with views that include a Martello tower, once part of the original grounds. A second Victorian conservatory, with vivid stained glass panels, off the family room needs some restoration.

In keeping with the overall less-is-more ethic, there are only a few well-chosen photos of Alison dotted around the house.

She broke this rule, however, in the passageway to the ballroom – a hall of fame crammed with magazine covers and movie stills from her roles in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Taffin with Pierce Brosnan and Duel of Hearts, based on a book by Barbara Cartland.

There are snaps of her with Cartland and actor Michael York and with Michael Jackson, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford. At 44, her latest TV role is in the E4 comedy Beaver Falls, in which she plays a raunchy cougar wife.

The ballroom at the end of the passage is a pavilion-style room with a vaulted ceiling which obviously hasn’t seen too many balls lately – it is currently used for storage.

Upstairs, there are five bedrooms off the vast landing, four with en suite bathrooms.

The spacious main bedroom is a riot of creams and beiges, with sunrise views over Dalkey Island and Killiney Hill, a walk-in wardrobe and an opulent en suite with his-and-hers marble-top sinks.

As well as two lovely en suite guest bedrooms, there’s a suite of very pretty pink, red and cream interconnecting rooms with a ballerina-themed bathroom, a study and bedroom. A glossy The Book of Gaga on the dressing table is the only edgy touch. There’s another cute floral bedroom on the other side of the landing,

A self-contained apartment, used as staff quarters on the lower ground floor, can be accessed from the house but also has its own separate entrance.

It has three double bedrooms, two of which are en suite, a small white kitchen, a utility room, shower room, laundry room and a hall that doubles as a sitting room.

* This article was amended on February 9th, 2012, to correct a factual error.