It’s hard to imagine, but once the whole of Rathgar was farmland. Eagle Lodge itself, at 36 Rathgar Avenue, was a corn field belonging to Fox’s farm, on what was described in 1908 as “a quiet but beautiful country lane”.
Number 36 itself was already built by then, having been completed in 1851 as a hunting lodge – you can see in the deeds that there is a prohibition on selling fish and hawking. That is unlikely to trouble you too much, as you’ll be too busy making this gorgeous detached Victorian villa your own.
The house has been in the same family for the past three generations – the present owner’s grandparents having bought it in 1923. She remembers the jersey herd grazing on the nearby Bewley’s farm, and her own parents growing all the fruit and veg they needed for their four children in the huge back garden.
There were chickens, a grape vine and fig trees too. “There’s a lot of family history embedded in it,” she says. “It was idyllic, we had wonderful freedom and we could see the seasons changing with what was growing in the garden.”
Two-storey building
From the outside, the house is a two-storey building, with a pair of coach houses on either side. One is now a garage, while the other has been incorporated into the house itself. Overall you have 250sq m (2,700sq ft) of accommodation on approximately a quarter of an acre.
This is divided into plenty of off-street parking at the front, and mature gardens to the rear – a portion of this was sold off some years ago, but you still have lots to play with, and plenty of privacy too.
Go up the sweeping granite stairs to the front door, and find a pair of gracefully proportioned reception rooms – one currently in use as a bedroom. The ceilings are high and the original features intact. The house has four bedrooms in all, but new owners will probably make a clean sweep of things, rejig and rearrange, given how much this era loves its ensuites and open-plan kitchens.
Elegance
The house’s history can be seen in little things, such as the elegance of the staircase being maintained all the way downstairs and the garden-level rooms having equally lofty ceilings and fine features. This is because it was customary to go hunting without your full complement of servants, so the gentry were likely to (imagine it!) venture below stairs.
As a detached house, there are nice dual aspect rooms, and you really have the most wonderful canvas to conjure with to create the home to suit your own family’s needs. At €1.45 million with Lisney, the house is set back from the road, so it’s beautifully quiet, and while Rathgar Avenue is no longer a quiet country lane, you’re rewarded for the change with great amenities, schools, shops and restaurants, as well as Kenilworth Park just down the road, and the city centre close at hand.
