“It’s an unusual house,” says Sam Coulter-Smith, former master of the Rotunda Hospital, with what must also be a mastery of understatement. Perched on the slopes of the Dublin mountains, Kilmashogue House was designed to make the most of its extraordinary site.
“It was built in 1959/1960,” says Coulter-Smith. The house was inspired by ski lodges, and clad in stone and cedar, with huge windows and balconies to underline the point of the setting.
“We were the second owners and we had fun there. I remember as a kid playing around the hillside, it was an adventure playground.”
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It might feel like it’s more Rocky Mountains than Three Rock, but Kilmashogue is still very well connected. You’re five or six minutes from the M50, so you’re at the airport in half an hour. It’s also just 10 minutes from Dundrum and 30 minutes to the city centre – so you’re out in the country but with all the benefits of being in town.
At 330sq m (3,550sq ft) over three levels, on 1.7 acres of gardens, you get four bedrooms – the master is right up top, with most of the rest of the accommodation on the first floor.
It’s a clever layout, in that the places that don’t really call for views – garage, study, storage rooms and so on – are at ground level. On the first floor find the hallway, living room, dining area, kitchen/breakfast room, and three of the bedrooms. One of these is an en-suite, and it also has a dressing area. There’s a family bathroom at this level too.
Over-specced, according to Coulter-Smith, when it was built, the house, which is being auctioned by Lisney on June 22nd with an AMV of €900,000, needs decorative upgrading and modernisation, but the space is there, and that glorious site. "From the Hellfire Club to the airport, the views are absolutely incredible. On a clear day you can see the Mourne mountains, but you're still sheltered by beautiful trees," Coulter-Smith says.
“And the wildlife. The rabbits and deer, they share the garden. No,” he corrects himself, “we share the garden with them.”
