A gabled late Victorian/early Edwardian house on just over an acre of gardens in Foxrock has original period details but unexpected features as well – like a deep crimson diningroom with decorative plasterwork that was created by one of its owners since moving into the house 35 years ago, and a pond filled with koi in a conservatory.
Craigholm, a detached 467sq m (5,022sq ft) five-bed with 60.3sq m (649sq ft) of attic space on Brighton Road, Foxrock, Dublin 18, also has potential: a 123.7sq m (1,332sq ft) two-storey coach house and stables could be converted into extra accommodation. New owners might also revive a plan to create a pedestrian entrance from the front door to Kerrymount Avenue.
Craigholm occupies a large site on the corner of Brighton Road and Kerrymount Avenue in Foxrock. This might also have development potential.
Craigholm was built between 1899 and 1902, just as the Victorian period ended and the Edwardian began. The house shares the style of many of the homes described in the Irish Builder journal as “the colony of pretty, red-tiled, gabled houses” designed by architect Richard Orpen in Foxrock – but with large windows, it’s brighter than many Edwardian homes. As a protected structure, it doesn’t have a Ber rating.
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On the whole, the house is decorated and furnished in traditional and sometimes dated style, and new owners may well choose to revamp and redecorate. There are many rooms and there is plenty of scope to change the layout of the original – for example, extending the relatively small kitchen.
Wide timber gates open on to a sweep of lawn divided by the driveway that leads around the house to the front door; it opens into a porch with a terracotta-tiled floor and two windows with pretty red tiles inset. An arched door opens from here into the most formal of the home’s rooms.
The large reception hall is more sittingroom than hall, having a fireplace with a limestone mantelpiece and two large windows. A formal drawingroom off it has a tall and deep bay window and an Adams fireplace. It opens then into a less formal livingroom with a polished timber floor, an Adams-style fireplace and a matching deep bay window – both looking on to the front lawn.
The large formal diningroom is on the opposite side of the house: it’s a dramatic room with a deep crimson ceiling and elaborate plasterwork, designed by the owner and decorated since the couple bought Craigholm 35 years ago. It’s furnished with period sideboards and glass-fronted cabinets, and its centrepiece is a long table that seats 12.
The kitchen/breakfastroom is modest by comparison: U-shaped, with a beamed ceiling, white units, black granite countertops and a gas-burning stove set into a tall brick mantelpiece. A utility room opens off the kitchen and in turn leads into what was once the playroom for the owners’ two children.
Other rooms on the ground floor include a garden room with exposed brick walls and glazed French doors, and on the other side of the house, a lean-to conservatory with a sloped roof and a large pond filled with koi.
Upstairs, there is a study, bathroom and separate shower room on the return and on the first floor, five bedrooms, two with en suites. The main bedroom has a tall and wide window and a window at the side overlooking the front garden, a coffered ceiling and an open fireplace with a cast-iron mantelpiece. A dressingroom with mirrored sliderobes off it opens into an en suite shower room. One of the five bedrooms, smaller than the others, is fitted out as a study.
On the second attic floor there are two more rooms, one an under-eaves sittingroom/office with a built-in desk; the other room has an en suite with a bath.
Outside is the two-storey coach house and stables – a previous owner did once keep horses here, say the owners. The coach house was used as a picture-framing studio – a hobby of one of the owners – and there’s also space for a garage. Upstairs, a long room is currently used as a snooker room.
There’s clear potential to turn this 123.7sq m (1,332sq ft) space, along with the 47sq m (505sq ft) stables, into further accommodation.
It seems that another of the owners’ hobbies is cars: there are four cars in a four-bay steel garage with four up-and-over doors.
Craigholm is a very private house in the middle of over an acre of well-tended gardens with very tall trees surrounding it. There’s an ornamental fountain in the lawn to the right of the driveway, with steps behind it leading around to the side of the house where there’s a circular patio area. To the left is a lawn with a tall sweetgum tree at its centre. There is plenty of room to park at the side of the house.
Craigholm’s owners aren’t going far: they have built a house for themselves next door that’s divided from their current home by a high stone wall.
Craigholm is seeking €4.5 million through agent Sherry FitzGerald.
