If there was an award for the prettiest house in the Burnaby in Greystones, it would probably go to Merriton, a delightful cottage on Kinlen Road.
Painted a bright duck-egg blue for as long as anyone can remember, it sits in the centre of a well-maintained garden, with apple trees probably as old as the house itself, agapanthus, a wisteria-clad veranda and a bay tree the late Irish Times cookery writer Theodora Fitzgibbon once declared produced the best leaves for casseroles of any such tree in Ireland.
"I love sitting on the veranda in the summer with a glass of wine and my paper," says the owner, retired teacher Marian Maher.
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Passersby occasionally pause at the narrow entrance gate set in a laurel hedge and peer in, admiring the house and garden. The lucky ones are invited in for a closer inspection.
Merriton has been home to Marian and her husband Pat for most of 30 years but now, with the children grown up, it’s time to move on even if, as Marian says, it is “a charming, lovely house to live in”. For Pat, life in Greystones was “so quiet, so laid back” and a great place for sports-mad youngsters.
Original dormer window
Merriton was built around 1905 by Patrick Joseph Kinlen, the builder of many Burnaby homes and after whom the road is named. The house, which has an original dormer window, is listed in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (buildingsofireland.ie), described as "a fine example of a smaller Edwardian house in a simple and mildly rustic Domestic Revival style".
It was home once to the Rowan family, the seed merchants, and later to Peter Hunt, an ex-RAF pilot, who for many years, post the war, ran a recording studio.
Pat treasures an intriguing piece of social and political history that Hunt discovered, secreted away in the attic – a small piece of wood on which was written: "Sinn Fein Michael Barry Abu Kilcool 2/5/1917 Up the Rebels".
Like a new pin
Notwithstanding its long life, Merriton is like a new pin. It is full of original features such as fireplaces, cornices, windows and doors and brass fittings but it has been kept and decorated in a style that manages to say period country cottage and seaside all at the same time.
Left of the hall door, a front-facing sittingroom looks out on to the garden through a bay window. The floor has been sanded and vanished; the bay has a built-in bench-style seat. On the other side of the hall, a small diningroom has a window to the side.
There is a good-sized downstairs bedroom, a bathroom, loo and utility room.
The kitchen – compact but with original tiled floor and stylist, modern fitted units – adjoins a back livingroom which has views over the rear garden and has a wood-burning stove that Pat says heats the whole house (modern central heating notwithstanding).
Upstairs are three further bedrooms – a beautiful, well-lit master with original fireplace, a twin and single – plus a shower and toilet.
The front and rear gardens have well-kept, trim lawns and mature plants. There are five small original garden tool sheds and a separate gate and driveway leads to two garages.
Sherry FitzGerald Greystones is quoting €1.15 million.
