Milltown/€460,000: The Stores in Milltown, Dublin 14, is proof that landmark properties don't have to be grand affairs. The distinctive green two storey corner building on the Dundrum Road at Milltown Bridge is one of the best known, oldest buildings in the area and it is on the open market for the first time since it was built over 150 years ago. Orna Mulcahy reports.

It last changed hands sometime in the 1960s when its owner, the nearby Dublin Laundry, sold off its properties - that company's tall and beautifully refurbished chimney stack still exists on the banks of the Dodder near the new Luas track.

At that time it was bought by musician Paddy Moloney and his wife Rita, who were already living there because the grocer's shop was Rita's family home. It had been run as a general stores by her grandfather and his father before him. According to Rita Moloney it was in the back parlour that the Chieftans were founded.

The Stores still has the feeling of a country grocery - a reminder that only a couple of generations ago, Milltown was a country village.

The room to the front on the right is where the shop was and it still has its original wood panelled and varnished walls as well as shelves and cupboards and a cast-iron fireplace. A large picture window looks down over the bridge while another looks out onto Milltown Bridge Road. A railing runs along the ceiling where Rita remembers that when she was a child, rows of ham would hang at Christmastime waiting for collection.

Through a door is where the family would have lived. Upstairs there are three good-sized rooms and downstairs there is a back parlour, a small office as well as a basic kitchen and basic shower room built into an extension out the back. The house has been lived in in the past by the Moloney's children and has been maintained, including the installation of new windows and heating but it needs refurbishment from top to bottom.

The house is right on the road and there is a tiny strip of very narrow path in front of the double-fronted property. There are double garage doors providing access to a good-sized side yard, although given the point in the bend that the house is on, driving in and out would not be for the faint hearted. New owners may instead consider extending the house out to the side. In all there is 108 sq m (1,160 sq ft) of space in the house.

The Stores is for auction on July 1st through Sherry FitzGerald which is guiding €460,000.