If there was a prize this week for olde worlde pretty, Glenheather on Brennanstown Road, Carrickmines would win. Built in 1910 in the Orpen style then so popular in neighbouring Foxrock, its wide exterior punctuated by small-pane window features, timbered gables, red brick and render and a distinctive red-tiled roof. That’s to the front. To the rear is pure chocolate-box gorgeous with climbing wisteria, an upstairs veranda and the original steel-framed French windows opening out to the vast lawn dotted with blooming flowerbeds and mature trees. The house sits on one acre.

Glenheather’s first owners used it as a weekend retreat to get away from grimy Dublin before selling it on to the Bewley family in 1928. The present owners have been here since the early 1980s. Each owner has made their own improvements, extending the house on both sides, the most recent addition being the self-contained (though with access from the house) one-bed annex built in the style of the house. All that has brought Glenheather up to 407sq m (4,350sq ft).

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While the house has certainly grown since it was built, much of the beautiful interior detailing was left, which gives it real character. So there are decorative beams in most reception rooms, a fine oak staircase, beautifully tiled chimneypieces and those metal windows.

Rambling

There’s a pleasant, rambling feel to the house; none of the rooms are vast, though there are a lot of them. There are five bedrooms on the first floor and, up in the attic, three more interconnecting bedrooms. The new bespoke pine kitchen was installed by the current owners in the 1990s.

The horizontal way the house has grown means it’s probably time for a rethink of its layout. There are, for example, three staircases including the one in the annex. All that will be part of an extensive renovation programme – unless buyers have more ambitious plans given that Glenheather is not a protected structure.

The owners are downsizing, hoping to convert the garden to the side to a site for a new two-storey house – it and Glenheather would share a driveway. However, in what is surely a first, the objections include one from the South Korean embassy citing the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as part of an effort to prevent the development; Glenheather is next to Seoul Manor, its ambassador’s residence in Dublin. The planning application is now with An Bord Pleanála.

Glenheather is for sale by Sherry FitzGerald asking €3.25 million.