This late 19th-century storybook house with bonneted gables has all the charm you’d expect, along with great connectivity and almost 0.7 acres of grounds that include a greenhouse, garden rooms, and lots of lawn, €590k.
When people dream of escaping to the countryside to enjoy more space and grow their own vegetables, the picture is usually further afield than Ballybouughal, Co Dublin, which is just 30 kilometres from the capital’s city centre.
This two-bedroom, one-bathroom storybook house has a bobbin and hazel scallop style roof featuring long straw, groomed to perfection by master thatcher Peter Childs.
It has bonneted gables, and its lime render exterior is pristine.
Address: Genista Cottage, Drishoge, Ballyboughal, Co. Dublin, A45 XK66
Asking price: €590,000
Agent: DNG McKenna Healy
It looks unreal, like something conjured up by AI. But it has been in situ on Drishoge Lane, in Drishoge, about 2.5 kilometres southwest of Ballyboughal since the late 19th century and is listed on Fingal’s record of protected structures.
The house is set on almost 0.7 of an acre of equally manicured grounds that include mature planting, topiary hedging and vast tracts of rich lawn, with no summer scorching in sight.
A paved path leads up to the porch and front door, which is painted a soft green.
A large arched window beams light from the porch deep into the house.
Inside, you can see how thick the walls are by the width of the curved opening through from the porch to the living room.
Here, a wood-burning stove has been set into a plastered hearth that is topped with a railway sleeper-style mantle.
Underfoot are polished timber floorboards. The stairs up to the bedrooms lead up from here.
A floor-to-ceiling opening leads through to the kitchen where there’s a dresser, a shaker-style bench at the breakfast table and simple below-counter cabinetry.
A latched cottage door opens through to a flagstone-floored utility room.
There are deep-silled windows with sash frames throughout.
Upstairs, the windows are set low in the rooms and landing, as was the tradition in such vernacular homes.
The main bedroom is a double. The second bedroom is a single. A shower adjoins it.
The property has not one but two garden rooms that kids will delight in. One is already furnished with bunk beds.
There are foundations laid for a large workshop.
Elsewhere, the extensive grounds include a shaded terrace that is a sun trap, an all-weather barbecue area and an active greenhouse, should you wish to get stuck into growing your own fruit and veg.
Dublin city centre is 30 kilometres away, a drive time of 45 minutes, depending on traffic, and it's a 13-kilometre drive south to Dublin Airport.
Selling agent DNG McKenna Healy is seeking €590,000 for the BER-exempt, two-bedroom house, which extends to about 75 square metres and sits on 0.69 acres.
