A large period house overlooking a park in Dún Laoghaire has been a happy home for Olivia and Colman Dunne for more than 30 years. When they bought 2 Royal Terrace East, it was in flats and bedsits – but original period details such as sash windows with shutters, elaborate cornicing and centre roses were largely undamaged.
The couple converted the house to a family home, adapting it over the years to suit their growing family’s needs. They are moving on, but won’t go far, says Olivia, as she is still running the Montessori school she opened in Monkstown 39 years ago.
The mid-19th century house has been well maintained but new owners will likely revamp it, modernising it in the kind of style seen in other houses on Royal Terrace that have come on the market recently – such as Number 2 Royal Terrace West, which has been rebuilt from top to bottom, with a price tag of €1.34 million.
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Two other houses on the west side sold for €1.4 million and €1.6 million last year. Number 2 Royal Terrace East, a 297sq m (3,200sq ft) five-bedroom house – two-storey over garden level at the front, three-storey at the back – is for sale by private treaty through DNG for €1.35 million.
The agent says that it is asking the same price as that for its refurbished number opposite because it is substantially bigger – number 2 Royal Terrace West is 232sq m (2,500sq ft).
The standout room in the house is the drawingroom on the first floor; spanning the width of the house, it has a large bay window and a second window overlooking the park, elaborate cornicing and centre rose, a large marble fireplace and original wooden floors.
Grand entrance hall
Other reception rooms include a large livingroom off the grand entrance hall on the ground floor and the diningroom behind it, currently used as a bedroom.
The kitchen/breakfastroom at the end of the hall was revamped 11 years ago; Olivia knows new owners may well develop a new kitchen/living area at garden level, but she is proud of the kitchen built to her own design. It has alder wood units, an Aga and a very handy mobile island unit that slides under the counter when not in use. The kitchen table sits in a deep box bay window; a door opens onto steps down to the back garden.
The bedrooms are mostly large doubles. New owners could convert the garden-level area for their own use, or as separate living quarters – it has a separate front entrance as well as opening onto the back garden. The sun hits the back garden in the morning, and there’s a small patio at the front where the owners sit to catch the evening sun. There is garage parking off a lane at the rear as well as residents’ parking on the street.
It’s a family-friendly area near the centre of Dún Laoghaire, where residents organise summer, Christmas and Halloween parties in the railed public park between the facing terraces.
