Hi-tech Lambay House has seductive decor, a gym, cinema and lookout tower - for €3.9m. Orna Mulcahy reports.

A dramatic new house with its own lookout tower on the edge of the water in Howth comes to the market this week asking €3.9 million.

Lambay House, which is part of the Cosgrave-built Howth Lodge development, is a 279 sq m (3,000 sq ft) house with some of the best views in the city. Designed by architects Conroy Campbell Hickey, it's a fascinating building made for a wealthy man about town, with its lavish, masculine decor and a dizzying array of special features, that include a cinema and mahogany fitted bar, a gym, home office and marble-lined bathrooms.

Everywhere you go there are television screens - even over the bath - and the lights, heat, sound, curtains and blinds are all controlled by touch panels and from a hand-held device; it's a setting perfect for seduction. The four-bedroom house is being sold fully furnished.

For all the gadgets on show, the key selling point is the beachfront location which is relatively rare along the coast. The principal rooms have stunning views across the strand to Ireland's Eye and Lambay Island, while the top of the tower has a cosy study with a built-in sofa and telescope.

Decks at several levels take advantage of the views and the sunny orientation and, while there is no garden, the development of which it's part has around two acres of landscaped grounds.

The house is for sale by private treaty through Hooke & MacDonald, which is also launching the final phase of apartments within the Howth Lodge scheme, including large two-bedroom apartments priced from €725,000 and spacious penthouses that rise to €2.3 million.

It's a two-storey granite-fronted house built on a curve with a series of small box-like windows to the front giving little hint of the interior.

Inside, the lower level has a wide entrance hall that leads to the livingroom-cum-cinema and bar on the left. A wall of windows looks out onto a narrow deck and the boundary wall which dips and curves to allow views of the sea.

Beyond the livingroom is a corridor leading to a series of three bedrooms, all with en suites. Upstairs, the double height livingroom is a show stopper with its wall of windows opening onto an ocean liner-style deck.

The kitchen is another superb space with top-of-the-range units and built-in appliances. A long corridor lined with wardrobes leads off the livingroom to the main bedroom and bathroom. Carpeted steps lead up and up to the top of the tower and, once you get up here and see the view, it's hard not to settle in for the day.

Lambay House, and the show apartments at Howth Lodge are on open view today and over the weekend.

For a virtual tour of this property click on nicemove.ie