A large family home owned by the late Des Traynor and his wife Dofeen at 134 Howth Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3, is expected to make around £2 million (€2.54m) when it is auctioned on May 23rd by HOK Residential.
The six-bedroom detached house, Kilronan, is fairly typical of the big Victorian homes with huge front and rear gardens along one side of Howth Road which have always been owned by business and professional families.
One of the few to come on the market in recent years was owned by 100-year-old Mrs Mary Guiney, head of Clerys department store, who has since moved to a smaller house in the area. Called Auburn, that house was sold for £4 million (€5.08m) in late 1999 and is now the subject of a planning application for redevelopment.
Kilronan has been owned for the past 30 years by the Traynor family and once it is sold, Mrs Traynor plans to live with her married daughter in Malahide.
The house was not always as grand as it is now, having been substantially rebuilt to double its former size after Des Traynor's purchase of it in 1970. The couple had grown up in Crumlin and after their marriage bought their first home in Raheny. They moved to another house at Howth Road, Raheny, before buying Kilronan, when Mr Traynor was with the accountancy practice of Haughey Boland.
Mrs Traynor remembers moving in with their four sons and one daughter on 6th April, 1971. Another son was born subsequently. She says it was "a great family home, easily managed", where herself and her husband had "loads of parties". Mr Traynor, who had a heart condition, died in his sleep on May 11th, 1994.
The Traynor children have grown up and moved out over the years. The youngest son - the last to live at home - is also planning to set up his own home shortly. Mrs Traynor says she hates the thought of leaving the house, but hopes it will be bought by a family with children.
Whoever clinches a deal here will undoubtedly have been impressed by the superb reception rooms and the extensive gardens front and rear, which cover an acre of ground. One of the property's main selling points is that it is ideal for entertaining on a lavish scale - with its unusually large reception hall and four reception rooms. Architect Sam Stephenson remodelled the house, which has 4,500 sq ft of space.
Kilronan offers very considerable privacy behind high walls and electronically controlled gates. The house has high double entrance doors leading into the big, welcoming reception hall, which has a cut-glass chandelier hanging from a high ceiling. Identical double doors straight ahead open into a formal study which, unusually, has a door leading directly out to the back garden. The study has two walls of bookcases and a lovely period desk.
There are two principal communicating reception rooms decorated in soft-coloured wallpaper. The drawingroom is particularly charming, with an Adam-style white marble fireplace and two large windows, one of them a broad bay, overlooking the front garden. Two sliding doors open into a diningroom with its large mahogany table and seating for 10.
For the Traynor family, most activity centred around the family room, a long room at the back of the house with comfortable sofa seating around an open fireplace, and a separate dining area. A glass cabinet holds hundreds of miniature dolls from around the world. Off the reception hall there is a guest toilet and a walk-in cloakroom.
The kitchen/breakfast room at the side of the house has a range of pine wall and floor presses installed many years ago, but still considered fashionable.
One of the highlights of the house is the main bedroom suite which runs the full width of the house. Entered through double doors at the top of the stairs, it has a particularly spacious bedroom
which includes a walk-in dressingroom and a bathroom with separate sauna. There is also a second bedroom with an en suite and four more bedrooms with a separate bathroom.
One of the surprises of Kilronan is the vast, well-kept gardens at the rear. The area is divided in three and includes an all weather tennis court, a vegetable garden and a lower section that runs down to the DART line. A two-storey coach house in the middle of the garden has been little used in recent years.
