A four-bedroom house on beautiful gardens with views over Killiney Bay and a separate lodge has a guide of around €4m. Orna Mulcahy reports

A strikingly modern house on an acre of level gardens high above the sea in Killiney, Co Dublin, is expected to fetch around €4 million at auction through Lisney on June 30th.

Buena Vista on Killiney Hill Road, has a superb setting amidst beautifully tended gardens overlooking Killiney Bay. In a neighbourhood full of big Victorian villas, this is something different - a house built by its architect owner in 1941.

The four-bedroom house has that breezy ocean liner feel one associates with art deco design. It's a wonderfully bright, open plan home with sea views on all sides, a large conservatory and curved balconies. At right angles to the house is a two storey lodge that has two bedrooms, two livingrooms, kitchen, bathroom and a large workshop. This is a valuable addition for families with staff to accommodate. Together the house and lodge have around 412 sq m (4,433 sq ft).

The current owners bought Buena Vista, then called Tower Hall, in 1995 from the original owners. The house needed a good deal of refurbishment as did the terraced gardens.  However there were original features aplenty such as the fine maple parquet flooring that runs through the hall and reception rooms and the stunning stairwell with its wall of windows looking out over the front garden.

Having done all that could be done the house, they turned to the garden, enlisting the help of stonemason Jim Barcoe who came initially for three days, and stayed for months, building a series of pathways, patio walls and archways through the terraced gardens. The idea was to create a series of outdoor rooms, to be enjoyed a different times of the day, though there is also a large and working vegetable garden that provides lots of potatoes, beans and lettuces.

Inside the main house, there are a drawingroom, that opens through high folding doors to a diningroom with access to a large conservatory with tremendous views across to Bray Head and of the surrounding gardens and houses.

The kitchen is spacious and country style with oak units topped in polished granite. Off it, is a tiny study, and there is also a television room at this end of the house. Upstairs, the four bedrooms lead off a wide landing with an original glass brick wall in shades of blue and green. None of the bedrooms is particularly large, but all have gorgeous views, particuarly the main bedroom with it stunning ensuite bathroom that leads to a an open-air terrace.

All the bedrooms are decorated in a light neutral style and all have ensuites, doing away with the need for a family bathroom.

The lodge, with its part granite, part timber facade is a substantial house in its own right. On the ground floor is the garage cum workshops which leads through to a large playroom or sittingroom with a maple floor and striking corner windows. Upstairs, is a self contained two-bedroom apartment with a fine sittingroom with a wall of south facing windows and superb antique French chimpneypiece.