14 hours ago
‘As a student, I lived in a tower' – €3.4m home in Killiney includes a spectacular folly in the garden
Asking price: €3.4m
Agent: Sherry FitzGerald (01) 2751000
Academia may be associated with ivory towers, but when Kim McClenaghan attended UCD in the 1990s he happened to live in his own cut granite version with spectacular views overlooking Killiney Bay.
What's more, it was right beside his parents' house, and its all-important washing machine and fridge. You could do a lot worse, as student accommodation goes.
McClenaghan was about seven in 1980 when his family returned form a stint living in Africa and bought Druid Lodge, a six-bed villa on over an acre on Killiney Hill Road on the south-east coast of Dublin.
The house came with, among other things, a huge castellated folly tower in the garden – which must have been built at great expense by its 19th-century owners. According to the records, this likely was one William O'Hara.
The home takes its name from a stone 'Druid's Chair', a megalithic cromlech which was documented near the site during O'Hara's time in residence.
And while the garden tower would make a magical addition to any kid's playground, it made for an even better student pad. 'I think I probably had the best views in Killiney when I was in college,' says McClenaghan. 'The sitting room is nearly at the top, and it has the bedroom halfway up and a kind of study area. I could play my music there and there was a little path leading straight down to the main gate, so I could get in and out quietly.'
Druid Lodge dates back to the early 1800s on the site of an 18th-century residence and is set off the road on its 1.2 acres, behind granite-pillared gates. The version we see today was built in the 1830s and extended substantially in the 1860s, with two front 'wings' added to take advantage of the views.
While known as a 'spite tower', the 1850 vintage garden landmark was not built, as popular legend suggests, to mess up a neighbour's sea view.
Historian Peter Pearson wrote that the Victorian owners of Druid Lodge simply wanted a better sea view for themselves.
McClenaghan reckons his parents bought the property when people were not that interested in period houses. 'Whereas my father always had an appreciation of the historical context of things.'
This 'appreciation' is evident in the interior, where, for example, the ornate interior door frames have been carefully stripped back.
Other than the addition of a conservatory in the 1990s, the McClenaghans made no alteration to the property in over four-and-a-half decades there. The Virginia creeper-clad double-fronted facade has a central porch bay with the front door tucked discreetly to one side, but when you go inside there's nothing discreet about the grand entrance hall, which has a spectacular staircase and 4.2-metre ceilings.
Either side of this are the two main reception rooms, one a formal dining room and the other, a drawing room. Both of these have the same 4.2m ceilings, intricate plasterwork and marble fireplaces. There is a 'butler's pantry' off the dining room, and the drawing room is connected to the conservatory.
To the rear of the downstairs hallway, there is a living room and a country-style kitchen, a sunroom and two store rooms. The two main bedrooms are accessed via the grand staircase to the front of the house. Both of these have open fireplaces and views out over the bay, as well as en suite bathrooms accessed via a short flight of steps.
To the rear, there's a stairs to the second floor where four further bedrooms are located, along with two bathrooms, and at the garden, or basement level, there is a separate, two-bedroom apartment, with a bathroom, a living room, a kitchen and a study.
McClenaghan remembers Druid Lodge as a place of adventures for himself and five siblings. His father built a large treehouse, which provided for summer sleep-outs, while the location allowed the kids easy and safe access to the sea.
'There's a private road nearby that takes you to the beach in five minutes and then if you walk up Vico a little bit, there's a back entrance into the park.'
When the family first lived here, the garden was very overgrown, he remembers: 'My dad let someone graze horses on it to cut the grass down and discovered a lawn tennis court under all the vegetation.'
Despite the views provided by Druid Lodge's elevated position, McClenaghan says the house is actually quite sheltered. 'It is protected from the westerly winds the way it sits, it's east side to the sea. To our disgust as kids – we never got snow. The moderating influence of the sea seems to give it a milder microclimate.'
One past resident who would have appreciated that microclimate was republican, newspaper founder and Young Irelander revolutionary John Blake Dillon.
Dillon settled here at Druid Lodge after he returned from exile in America, to which he had fled following the ill-fated rebellion of 1848.
His marriage to Adelaide Hart, whose family owned Druid Lodge, proved more successful than his revolutionary ambitions. Later he became an MP for Parnell's Home Rule party. 'I associate all the happiest memories of my life with Druid Lodge', Dillon later wrote in his memoirs.
The property was more recently home in the 1920s to Walter Phillips, an accountant credited with 'mechanising' the finances of the Guinness Brewery.
And now it's for sale along with its grand tower. Sherry FitzGerald seek €3.4m.
