Eating, drinking, wildlife-loving, star-spotting, house-hunting and bay-watching. It's all in Dublin
CELEBRITY COASTWATCH: NORTH Look back on the coast - from your yacht/ row-boat/kayak/car ferry - and you can spot the houses most of us only dream of owning. The rear of Larry Mullen's house looks onto the hard-to-find Hole-in-the-Wall beach in Sutton. On Howth's southern coast, Moya Doherty and John McColgan's modern "Riverdance Mansion" is perched on the cliff just west of the Bailey Lighthouse. A little further west again is The Tansey, home of Irish Mercedes franchise owner, Stephen O'Flaherty. More below ...
THE PUBLIC PRIVATE HOUSES Geragh, former home of architect Michael Scott in Sandycove, and , the Blackrock home of Tedcastle's oil barons the Reihill family, are just two of many private Irish houses that open to the public during certain times of year. Book your visit. Deepwell, Rock Hill, Blackrock, Co Dublin. Contact Breda Conway on 01-2888352. Open: June 1st-30th and Sept 1st-10th, 2004; Jan 3rd-Feb 3rd, 2005. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Fee: €5 for adults to house and garden. Geragh, Sandycove, Co Dublin. Contact Michael Casey on 01-2804884. Open 2004: Jan 19th-23rd and 27th-29th; Feb 3rd-6th and 26th-28th; March 8th-12th; May 1st-31st; June 1st-4th and 7th-11th. 2-6 p.m. Fee: €3. A full list of museum/houses is published by Dúchas.
WHO'S WHO ON SORRENTO TERRACE? Number 1 on the extreme right of this picture is owned by Terry Coleman, who famously paid £5.9 million for Sorrento House but has never moved in. Film-maker and writer Neil Jordan owns two houses. "King of the seafront" Robin Power, who owns numerous waterside properties between Blackrock and Killiney, also lives on the eight-house terrace. Number 5, is available to rent for €10,000 a month (call Pembroke McDonnell: 01-6614799). And The Edge owns Sorrento Cottage, a small pink house to the left of the terrace.
CELEBRITY COASTWATCH: SOUTH Starting in the city centre, property magnate Harry Crosbie lives in the middle of his own empire, opposite Ocean Bar on Grand Canal Dock. Going south, a walk along Sandymount Strand takes you past Seamus Heaney's house, near Merrion Gates on Strand Road. But to see Ireland's true "Gold Coast", float past Dalkey, where the celebs are wedged along the coastline like sardines in a tin. See Jim Sheridan's Martha's Vineyard, currently under construction on Coliemore Road. Journalist Robert Fisk is on Vico Road, and newspaper scion Gavin O'Reilly lives in Bartra on Harbour Road. lives on Temple Hill, and on Victoria Road. But most spectacular of all is Joe and Marie Donnelly's controversial, ultra-modern gallery-cum-home off the Vico Road.
BAY VIEW EATING Eat, and drink it all in, in these seaside eateries: Cruzzo, Malahide Marina, 01-8450599: High decibel. King Sitric, East Pier, Harbour Road, Howth, 01-8325235: Charvet shirt heaven. Aqua, West Pier, Howth, 01-8320690: New money mecca. Kinara, 318 Clontarf road, Dublin 3, 01-8336759, meaning "at the water's edge" in Urdu. Nuff said. Ocean, Charlotte Quay, Dublin 4, 01-6688862: Wasted on the young. Brasserie na Mara, 1 Harbour Road, Dún Laoghaire, 01-2806767: Yachtie central. The Forty Foot, Dún Laoghaire, 01-2842982: Elevated status. Kish, Coliemore road, Dalkey, 01-2850377: Rocker rendezvous.
FISHY BUSINESS
Bring the bay into your kitchen by buying fish direct from the boats.
The Icehouse, at the end of the coal harbour, Dún Laoghaire, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, half-day Saturday, 01-2805936. Wright's fish shop, 14 West Pier, Howth harbour, open seven days, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. (till 8 p.m. Thursdays), 01-8320249. And Bulloch Harbour in Dalkey is a good spot to buy crabs and mackerel straight from the boats.
NEXT BIG THINGS
Some architectural plans that will change our waterfront: Burdon Craig Dunne Henry Architects is set to radically change the face of the Docklands when their design for the U2 Tower, best of 500 entries in a competition run by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, is built at Britain Quay. U2's new studio will occupy the top two floors of the mixed-use landmark building.
The controversial Carlisle Pier, Dún Laoghaire Harbour, designed by heneghan.peng. architects, has been selected for the international exhibition at the Venice Biennale, which runs September 12th-November 7th, 2004. The Stack A pedestrian bridge, linking the Financial Services Centre with the southern quays and rejuvenated gas storage areas, is expected to breathe new life into Dublin city east when it arrives next December. Also planned is a new vehicular bridge linking Macken Street with the north side. A plan to turn the derelict Clontarf Baths into a restaurant and bar has been appealed, but it seems inevitable the site, on the city side of the wooden bridge leading to Bull Island, will be redeveloped. The former baths at Blackrock and Dún Laoghaire are also the focus of development plans.
SEA VIEWS FOR SALE Various houses along the seafront have been on the market for months and can't seem to shift. Could it have something to do with the prices? Lios an Uisce, in a spectacular location overlooking Blackrock Park, is on the market for €5.5 million. on Howth's southern coast - owned by Neil Wilson of Datalex - is on offer for a mere €8 million. And Eddie Irvine's bachelor pad in Dalkey, for sale for more than a year, is yours for €6.5 million. They might still be around when your SSIA matures.