There we were having a gander through the Residential Property Price Register only to stumble across the surprise sale – after many years – of one of Dublin’s most unusual and fantastic homes.
Harlech House in Goatstown will be familiar to many – it became something of a tourist attraction in the area – as the home in the middle of the Harlech Downs housing estate with the magnificent and somewhat incongruous stainless steel dragon gates.
Beyond the electric gates stood a substantial seven-bed home on nearly an acre, where the elaborate ironmongery and fantasy theme continued unbridled.
The former owners, who have Welsh connections, redesigned the house in 1993 and enlisted the best of craftspeople – glass artists, mosaic makers, blacksmiths and masons – to incorporate Christian and gothic motifs throughout the highly unusual property.
The house, off Goatstown Road, was placed for sale in 2011 with an asking price of €2.75 million, and, given the bespoke nature of the interiors and those gates, it remained on the market, with a price drop and an agent switch thrown in, until very recently. Now Harlech House has appeared on the Residential Property Price Register having sold for €2.18 million through estate agent Savills in March.
The property is replete with fairy-tale references, including a Jack and the Beanstalk-like tree motif on the staircase, an underground passageway leading from the main house to the front gates, and a secret garden.
There was even a website dedicated to it, harlechhouse.com, which describes the property as a “hymn to God”.
Whoever the new owners are, they will certainly have a job replacing the substantial and highly unique décor. Then again, everything about Harlech House could be the measure of their dreams, proof if ever it were needed that there’s a house out there for everyone.
