An early Victorian country house at the end of a cul-de-sac off Ferndale Road in Rathmichael, Co Dublin, has a number of striking features that include a grand upstairs landing with a tall fanlight-topped window, curved bedroom doors, and an oval gilt-edged ceiling feature that runs nearly the length of the bow-ended top landing.
Cuilin, a protected structure built in the 1840s, has been modernised over a number of years while retaining its many period features. Simply but elegantly furnished, it stands on nearly four acres that include a number of revamped outbuildings and a walled garden. But the cul-de-sac that is Allies River Road ends just before the N11/M11 which borders the property: it is completely screened from the motorway by tall trees, but there’s a strong background hum of traffic.
Cuilin was originally modernised by owners who bought it in 1998. It went on the market in 2010 with a price tag of €4.15 million before being bought – after severalprice drops – by the current owners in 2012 for about €1 million. They made a number of further changes, building a second kitchen in what was previously a sittingroom – from where the owner ran a cookery school – and redecorating. Cuilin, a 390sq m (4,197sq ft) five-bedroom house on 1.58 hectares (3.9 acres), is now for sale through Vincent Finnegan for €1.75 million.
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Cuilin has a simple layout with a long front hall opening through double doors into a rear hall, two dual aspect reception rooms with deep bay windows at the front of the house, two modern kitchens on either side of the rear hall and five bedrooms upstairs.
The drawingroom has attractive ceiling cornicing, a white marble fireplace and like most of the rooms upstairs and down, original polished floorboards. An arch on the side of the fireplace leads to the newer of the two kitchens in what was previously a sittingroom. It has a Belfast sink, solid fuel stove in a white marble fireplace, a pale quartz-topped island unit and French doors opening onto a terrace.
A door from here opens across the rear hall into a slightly larger kitchen with an Aga, island unit with a polished granite worktop and French doors opening onto another terrace. There’s a good-sized utility room at the rear, a downstairs toilet, and a small conservatory opening onto a cobblestone courtyard.
Upstairs, on the return with the rooms with bowed doors, there’s one bedroom and a large bathroom with a free-standing bath. The four double bedrooms on the top floor have vaulted ceilings; the main bedroom over the drawingroom has two large windows, the deep bay at the side looking over a smooth green lawn. It has a large en suite; another of the doubles has a tiny en suite concealed behind a panel.
Outside, one outbuilding in the courtyard has been converted into a bright home office. The original two-storey coach-house has also been converted, with a door opening into a small panelled room with a bar in the corner; steep steps lead up to a long timber-floored games room with a timbered ceiling and exposed brick walls. An arch at one end opens into a space that’s been used as a gym. There are still stables in the coach-house’s ground floor.
The four-acre grounds that surround the house are laid out in well-maintained lawns surrounded by tall trees; paths lead through woodland areas beyond the lawn. The walled garden, just under an acre in size, is divided by box hedging.
Allies River Road is a sharp turn off Ferndale Road nearly opposite the entrance to Old Conna Golf Club and a short distance from John Scottus school, formerly Aravon. The area around Cuilin is designated a “green buffer zone” in the draft Old Connaught Area plan.
