CO DUBLIN: €1.6M:ESKER HOUSE in Lucan, Co Dublin still retains an air of grandeur from the outside. Built in the 18th century, it manages to hold its own against a surrounding landscape that has changed considerably in recent decades.
Beyond the Griffeen River, which runs along the right-hand side of the property, you can see Esker Glebe a nearby housing estate.
The house, a protected structure on 2.76 acres with substantial front gardens and a long driveway up to a gravelled forecourt, is for sale through joint agents McDonald Brothers Real Estate Alliance and Newcombe Estates asking €900,000. There is also a separate landholding of 6.7 acres across the footbridge beside Esker cemetery with an asking price of €700,000.
Inside, Esker House is in need of a complete overhaul. Reception rooms include a sittingroom and a diningroom with marble fireplaces, sash windows and an atmosphere of faded splendour.
Off the inner hall there’s a big study with wood-panelled walls and a dated kitchen. On the far side of the kitchen is a second, smaller entrance into the house.
A large room off the study has access to an annex which is unfinished and would be a project for a future buyer. It is 29sq m (315sq ft) with a bathroom, sittingroom and bedroom.
Upstairs there are four fine-sized double bedrooms. The rear bedrooms look out to a former walled garden. The main bathroom is pure 1970s, with patterned tiles and an avocado suite.
The previous owner ran a brood farm and the grounds have a barn, stableyard, workshop and a feed room/tack room. Some of the outbuildings are in need of restoration and a bricked-up gate-lodge at the front is in a bad state of repair.
The 2.76-acre grounds around the house are zoned objective F “to preserve and provide for open space and amenity”. Uses permitted in principle include a community centre, cultural use, open space, recreational facilities and Traveller accommodation.
This 6.7-acre landholding across the N4 road is zoned objective G “to protect and improve high amenity areas”. Permitted in principle are open space and Traveller accommodation. Development open for consideration includes hotel, medical, recreational, cemetery use and community use.
Esker House, Lucan, Co Dublin
18th century house beside Griffeen River near housing estate
Agents:McDonald Brothers Real Estate Alliance/Newcombe Estates
