A house in a wooded area on over two acres at the foot of the Dublin mountains is always likely to offer a sense of quiet, country living but the owners of Knockbracken in Kilternan picked a particularly secluded spot when they bought the house just over two years ago. Its address is Bishop's Lane but the house is further on off a private woodland road which is shared by five houses. Only one of these is visible on the winding drive up to Knockbracken.
The five-bedroom house is for sale by private treaty through Lisney for £2.5 million (3.175). The owners bought it for just £800,000 and although they've spent spent several hundred thousand pounds on renovations, the price is steep.
The house will have instant appeal to anyone for whom security is a top priority. There are two sets of electric security gates at the entrance with an integrated ram-proof bollard and intercom system. Inside there is a sophisticated alarm, an extensive CCTV system and an internal strong room/bunker with an armour-plated door.
For all that the house, which has 6000sqft of living space, feels like a comfortable family home which has been totally renovated to particularly high specifications. The clearest indication of just how high that spec was is in the £120,000 (152,369) kitchen. It is a SieMatic with Miele and Gaggenau appliances which are either stainless steel built-ins or else integrated. And even the range of appliances is at the luxury end of the spectrum from the sleek black Aga to the stainless steel built-in cappuccino maker. Off the kitchen is the main structural addition to the since it last changed hands - a two-storey conservatory which is used for informal dining on the ground floor while the upstairs is one of the houses reception rooms. The conservatory is planned for year-round living with its electric blinds and windows, air-conditioning and heating.
Elsewhere downstairs there is a large living room and dining room to the front of the house, as well as a home office with built in presses and shelves and the technology to run a computer based company. The strong room is at the back of the house off the utility room, which is again fitted out to a high specification right down to its industrial natural stone carpet.
The entrance hallway is large and wide and upstairs there are five bedrooms most with en suites as well as two more reception rooms, both of which are clearly used for entraining. One currently has a grand piano among its furnishing the other has a fully fitted wet bar along one wall. There are Canadian oak or Antica ceramica Turkish stone floors, most with underfloor heating, throughout.
The house was first built in the 1970s and then extended five years later on the sloping site. So it is three storey at the back and there is access from each level on to the impressive three-storey deck that includes a large outdoor hot tub. The deck is an integrated part of the beautifully landscaped garden which takes outdoor lighting to a whole new level with its computer programmed £100,000 (126,974) lighting system. There is a detached two-storey garage and planning permission has been secured to change its upper floors into a two-bedroom apartment. There is also permission to build over one of the deck areas.
