DONNYBROOK - €3.25M:This spacious five-bedroom house stands in a gated estate which has large grounds complete with mature trees.
THE LANDSCAPED and gated setting for the five elegant detached houses at Thornfield in Donnybrook, Dublin 4, brings all the sylvan charm of mature, preserved evergreens alongside the nicely thriving cork trees and rocket spruces planted when the scheme was built 15 years ago.
At that time densities were considerably lower than they are now, and though the scheme includes two apartment blocks, these are low-level buildings in a similar design and mellow brick to the houses. All five houses have lush gardens entirely suited to a site which backs onto UCD's Faculty of Horticulture.
Number 4 Thornfield, for sale by private treaty through Sherry FitzGerald at €3.25 million, sits on a third of an acre with south-west facing rear garden.
The 246sq m (2,650sq ft) house has four bedrooms, four reception rooms (including a study) and a large kitchen/breakfastroom.
A great deal of the house's charm lies in the light and feeling of space created by a vaulted window in the roof. You are immediately aware of its luminating benefits in the entrance hallway, even more so on the first floor, gallery landing.
High ceilings are another pleasant design factor as are sandstone fireplaces, deeply inset hard-wood windows, the occasional circular window and a kitchen/breakfastroom.
The vendors' choice of a subtly nuanced mushroom colour throughout allows these features to shine along with the clean lines of the fairly traditional layout.
The main drawingroom is to the front where there is a wide, deep-silled window. The sandstone fireplace encloses a gas fire. Double doors lead to a cloister-like study with arched windows to the front and rear.
A second set of drawingroom double doors, this time in glass, leads to a rear sitting/familyroom with another sandstone fireplace and windows overlooking the rear garden.
A front-facing diningroom could be put to a variety of other uses by a new owner.
There are travertine floor tiles in the kitchen/breakfastroom as well as a range of fully integrated appliances and Miele oven and hob.
Two of the bedrooms, including the main one, are en suite. The fifth, smallest bedroom adjoins the main bedroom and this could easily convert to a walk-in dressingroom.
Alcoves to either side of the bed in the main bedroom have fitted, mirrored wardrobes and the en suite has a large, circular window and marble-topped vanity unit.
In the rear garden there is a central, paved circle for dining alfresco and a shed almost entirely camouflaged by ivy.
The front gravelled garden has parking for several cars.
4 Thornfield, Donnybrook, Dublin 4
Modern five-bedroom detached house on a third of an acre of garden in a gated development.
Agent:Sherry FitzGerald
