There was a time when Dalkey was synonymous with the “strength of a pump, a tube and a piston”, rather than its current status as a seaside heritage village with some of the best vistas in the capital.
Back in the mid-1800s, engineers from far and wide descended on the village to admire the Atmospheric Railway, considered to be the world’s first. It ran for a decade using atmospheric traction on an upwards journey to Barnhill (Dalkey), while gravity gave the momentum for the return journey to Dún Laoghaire (then Kingstown). Heaven forbid you should end up as a third-class passenger; if the train came to a stop on the way back you’d be expected to hop out and give it a push.
Peter Pearson writes in his book, Between the Mountains and the Sea, that the decade of the 1840s, when the railway ran, saw “intensive development” and the first houses were constructed on Sorrento Road in 1845.
At the village end of Sorrento Road lies Eagle Terrace; a line of period Regency-style villas set back off the road with rare off-street parking. Number 1 has been extended and refurbished from a two-bedroom house into a four-bedroom, 195 sq m (2,099 sq ft) property, furnished with flair and attention.
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Over the years its current owners, if away on business, rented out their home through a film studio. So the likes of Bond actor Timothy Dalton and the late Ray Liotta have stayed here in the past, with Dalton staying for seven months for the filming of Penny Dreadful. Before his death, Liotta shot Cocaine Bear, which is due to be released next year. His co-star Margo Martindale, the Emmy-award-winning actor who starred in Million Dollar Baby and The Hours, also apparently loved her stay in the Dalkey house.
The roof of number 1 was also used, in 2013, for incognito members of the United States Secret Service, who hid along its roofline to keep an eye on former US first lady Michelle Obama while she and her daughters, Malia and Sasha, dined on fish and chips with Bono and Ali Hewson at Finnegan’s hostelry across the road. Eagle Terrace might live up to its name for sharp-eyed observers; you’d never know who you might see or run into at Finnegan’s. Run by the Finnegan family for nearly half a century, it is now a much-loved institution in the village. An old photograph hangs in the bar taken from 1 Eagle Terrace with the then owner of the property, a potter, along with staff who worked with the pub’s previous owners. So it appears the owners of number 1, including the current residents, have enjoyed the hostelry over the years.
After the house was purchased in 2004, it was essentially rebuilt: “Apart from the front walls we reconstructed the entire house, and we spared no expense when we did it,” says the owner, who is moving to be closer to home in Northern Ireland.
Completed in 2007 after a two-year undertaking, flagstones by Antica, measuring four by two feet, run though the ground floor, with the exception of the dining-cum-drawingroom and a ground-floor bedroom, both of which have wooden floors reclaimed from a church.
Renovations added a new floor upstairs, where there are two bedrooms. The principal bedroom opens out on to a balcony that overlooks the rear courtyard, and has a large en suite with a Jacuzzi bath and wall-to-floor Italian marble that is continued into the bedroom. A fourth bedroom, on the ground floor, is used as a study.
Downstairs, a combination of a country-style kitchen and informal dining area lie in a new extension. The entire space is bathed in light thanks to wide French doors that open out to a south-facing spilt-level courtyard, which has little or no maintenance as it is decked with stone walls housing some plants, so the only tending it will require will be upkeep of the deck and some weeding.
It’s a landmark house, and despite having parking for two cars you could happily live here without a vehicle. The Dart to the city centre, and the local sailing clubs, are a short stroll away, with walking at Killiney Hill and Hawk’s Cliff for daily dips.
In excellent condition, number 1 Eagle Terrace, which has a Ber of C1, is on the market through Vincent Finnegan seeking €1.75 million.
