A former convent in Dun Laoghaire which is now a six bedroom family home is to be auctioned by Sherry FitzGerald on October 11th with a guide price of £750,000. Lodge Park, off Tivoli Road, was built in 1830 for Fr B Sheridan, a wealthy philantropic priest who returned from France in 1830 to take up duties in St Michael's and later built St Joseph's Orphanage for the abandoned children of the parish.

The nuns who ran the orphanage lived there until nine years ago when the present owners moved in. The house and garden still have the air of a well-preserved rural parochial house. Lodge Park is important enough to be mentioned in Peter Pearson's architectural history of Dun Laoghaire.

Fr Sheridan adorned his house with stucco decoration, including a lion and urns, on the facade. Over the years the grounds have been reduced by surrounding development but Lodge Park still has a sweeping front lawn surrounding a gravel path. An added attraction for keen gardeners is the large south-facing greenhouse off the main building which is as long again as the main building.

The house has six bedrooms and there is planning permission for the building of a granny flat. As well as a spacious drawingroom and family room there is a very large and bright kitchen on the ground floor. There are two further service rooms off the kitchen, one a pantry and the other a freezer room. The institutional scale of this utility area will be a bonus for a buyer with a growing family.