Glenfield, Thornhill Road, Bray, A98C2D7
€1,795,000 5 Bed 2 Bath 318 m² for sale Feb 2025 courtesy Knight Frank.
A charming five-bedroom, double fronted Georgian house built circa 1840 with a mix of slate cladding and cut granite stone exterior, situated in a stunning position on approximately 2.3 acres of mature south facing grounds looking out towards the Sugarloaf. Glenfield extends to approximately 318 sq. m / 3,422 sq. ft. over two floors, with an abundance of period features and plentiful natural light throughout thanks to its sunny aspect. The entrance hall opens right into the formal dining room with box bay window, open fireplace and service hatch. Adjacent is the drawing room, a slightly later addition with Arts and Crafts features to include a beamed ceiling, partially panelled walls, leaded glass windows and an open fireplace. To the left of the entrance hall is a cosy, comfortable living room with matching box bay window and a solid fuel burning stove. This room opens through to the warm country kitchen with a range of floor and wall mounted fitted pine units, an AGA and ample space for a dining table. Off the kitchen is a boot room with garden access and a useful utility room. A rear hallway with guest WC provides an entrance for everyday access to Glenfield.
An attractive flight of stairs from the entrance hall accesses the first-floor accommodation which comprises an expansive primary bedroom suite with an office space, bedroom, dressing room and en-suite. There are four further spacious bedrooms and a well-appointed family bathroom. All of the southerly facing rooms on the ground and first floor offer magnificent views over the gardens and across the surrounding countryside to the Sugarloaf. Glenfield is a beautifully proportioned home, ideal for a family, in an exceptionally private, Sylvan setting ideally situated opposite the entrance to St. Gerards School and only a short drive to local shops and services.
The beautiful gardens are a key feature of Glenfield, with a gravelled driveway leading to a large garage, a workshop, various outhouses, a gym and a summer house with sandstone paved patio ideal for summer entertaining. There is ample space for a tennis court or a swimming pool (where there once was one) while there is potential, subject to planning permission, for another house on the grounds. The gardens are laid out informally mostly in lawn, herbaceous borders, a vegetable garden and orchard while there are some fabulous specimen trees. There is also plentiful car parking.
Detached three-bay two-storey house, built 1840, on a cruciform plan originally three-bay two-storey on a T-shaped plan centred on single-bay single-storey projecting porch to ground floor on an engaged half-octagonal plan; single-bay (single-bay deep) full-height central return (north). Leased, 1901. “Improved”, 1911, producing present composition. Pitched slate roof on a T-shaped plan centred on pitched slate roof (north) with clay ridge tiles, concrete or rendered coping to gables with rendered chimney stacks to apexes having stepped capping supporting terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on timber box eaves retaining cast-iron octagonal or ogee hoppers and downpipes. Creeper- or ivy-covered slate hung walls to front (south) elevation; roughcast surface finish (remainder). Paired square-headed window openings (ground floor) with cut-granite flush sills, and concealed dressings framing twelve-over-one timber sash windows. Square-headed window openings (first floor) with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing one-over-one timber sash windows. Square-headed window openings (remainder) with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing six-over-six timber sash windows. Interior including (ground floor): central vestibule on a half-octagonal plan with moulded plasterwork cornice to ceiling; elliptical-headed opening into hall; hall retaining carved timber surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors, staircase on a dog leg plan with turned timber balusters supporting carved timber banister, and carved timber surrounds to door openings to landing framing timber panelled doors; and carved timber surrounds to door openings to remainder framing timber panelled doors with timber panelled shutters to window openings. Set in landscaped grounds with piers to perimeter having cut-granite shallow pyramidal capping supporting wrought iron double gates.
Appraisal
A house representing an integral component of the mid nineteenth-century domestic built heritage of south County Dublin with the architectural value of the composition confirmed by such attributes as the symmetrical footprint centred on a polygonal porch; and the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated tiered visual effect with the principal “apartments” or reception rooms defined by bay windows: meanwhile, aspects of the composition, including the distinctive slate hung surface finish, clearly illustrate the continued development or “improvement” of the house in the early twentieth century. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thus upholding the character or integrity of a house having historic connections with the Buckham family including Robert Buckham (1854-1908) and Susan Maxwell Buckham (1864-1944) ‘of Thornhill Villa Bray County Dublin’ (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1908, 48).
Irish Historic Houses 