While the Burnaby estate in Greystones, Co Wicklow is named after adventurer and socialite Col Fred Burnaby, the developer behind the grand residential scheme for the seaside town was his wife, mountaineer and photographer Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed, whose name lives on on two roads in the Burnaby.
Her plans for very large detached arts and crafts style houses, holiday homes for Dublin’s wealthy merchants and professionals, were the first built from the 1890s, with smaller houses coming in phases by other builders later.
In 1916, an estate of more modest homes in the Burnaby was built and then curiously named Old Kaspar on a 0.3acre site on the corner of Manor Avenue and Kinlen Road.
The detached dormer bungalow is chocolate-box pretty, its curved shape allowing for an interesting winding layout inside. There are four bedrooms – one in the attic which was converted decades ago – the three others at ground level made up of two doubles and a very small single.
A single storey extension was added by previous owners to give the main bedroom a large en suite and dressing area.
The living accommodation includes a drawing room opening into a conservatory, family room off the kitchen/breakfast room and a small formal dining room.
A sign that the owners – who bought in 2014 for €640,000 – had no intention of moving is in the garden where a smart looking timber clad garden room was recently installed to serve as a home office.
Work on the house in their short stay includes renovating the bathroom and knocking through from the kitchen to the family room to make it more family friendly for the busy household.
Now expecting their fifth child they spotted a larger house nearby – the area with its many sports amenities is ideal for children – and are moving.
If new owners are downsizers, not an unlikely scenario given the larger houses nearby, they will find the house easy to live in with everything on one level. If they are a young family they may choose to extend to increase the size of the eat-in kitchen.
The garage to the side might also be eyed for conversion into living accommodation. There is plenty of off-street parking in the private gardens which wrap around the house.
Old Kaspar, with 173 sq m (1,862 sq ft) is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald seeking €945,000.
