Wanna Live In The Lap Of History?

One acre of garden too. Meh.

ou can always tell with the property supplements of a newspaper when a journalist is truly excited and when they’re just paying the rent.

One fine example of the former has appeared in today’s Irish Times, with writer Elizabeth Birthistle clearly revelling in both the history and the beauty of the house on offer.

Which is understandable, given that Glanseskin is one heck of a beautiful house, and one with a deep, rich history too.

It’s the roots of The Burnaby itself that has our IT journalist all in a tizzy, being Ireland’s first planned estate, and being the 1895 brainchild of the truly remarkable Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed, who was just 24 at the time.

Both fascinating histories, of course, which we covered here, agus here. And the London Dead blog covers so much better here.

Believed to be the second house constructed in The Burnaby, Glansekin was bought by its current owners, Aedamar O’Rourke and Brian Farrell, 20 years ago, when their eldest kid was just starting school. An Arts and Crafts home (no, we’re not really sure what that means either), the couple refurbished original details and did repairs, with the likes of the stairs panelling being stripped of paint and French polished.

As you can imagine, everything has been done in the best possible taste, with original quarry tiles and pitch-pine floors, and William Morris wallpaper being added, with a nod to the Victorian textile designer involved in the original interiors.

We could go on about that fine interior, of course, but it hardly seems worth it, given that Ms Birthistle gives it her all right here, but outside, you’ll find a tennis court, a double workshop, wood store, gardener’s shed and a greenhouse. And the neighbour’s cat.

So, should you have €2.3m just lying around, hey, we reckon Glaneskin is a feckin’ bargain.

You can explore and find out more over on myhome.ie here.