Young Irelander Denny Lane was once an occupant of this €550,000 Monkstown home

BRIGHT shines the light at No3, Fairy Hill, where once lived poet, patriot, scholar, and businessman, Young Irelander Denny Lane, composer of famed ballad Carrigdhoun.

On the waterfront in Monkstown, it’s the kind of natural setting that might inspire a fellow to weave a few half-decent lyrics together.

Whether Mr Lane was residing there at the time of penning Carrigdhoun is unclear but there is a reference to him living at Fairy Hill in a book on the history of the area.

The current owner says the same information was passed down to him by his late father and his mother, now in her 90s. His parents, from Carrigaline and Rathcormac, settled at Fairy Hill on Strand Rd in 1962 and ran a couple of businesses locally.

The owner reckons his end-of-terrace home was built around 1840.

 During the 53 years of its current ownership, it’s been extended twice, to the rear and to the side.

“Both extensions were done about 40 years ago. To the rear of the ground floor, a kitchen and downstairs loo were added; a bedroom and bathroom were added on the first floor and a smaller bathroom was added on the third floor,” the owner says. The house was already a six-bed prior to extending, and is now a seven-bedroom home.

A single-storey flat-roof side extension was meant to be the room that the children would gravitate to but that never quite happened, the owner says. “Probably the intention was to get us to move there for music and TV but we stayed put in the original TV room,” the owner laughs. Still known as “the new room”, it has patio doors to the front garden.

Accommodation these days includes a harbour-facing living room with bay window; a dining room overlooking the rear; an L-shaped kitchen with a spiral stairs to the back landing; a guest WC and the “new” room, aka sunroom, on the ground floor. 

Bedrooms are spread over the two top floors, with a bathroom on each. There’s some off-street parking to the rear.

Selling No3 is Kevin Barry, of Barry Auctioneers, and he says the tall period home, on just under half an acre, comes with “savage views”.

“It would really suit a family that wanted to put their own stamp on a waterfront property,” Mr Barry said, adding that it’s a “rare opportunity” to restore and modernise a fine home, which retains its period features, such as high ceilings and large windows (The Great House Revival, anyone?). New owners should also be prepared to invest in energy upgrades as the current BER is a lowly G.

Living at Fairy Hill would suit a family into sailing (Monkstown is dinghy central), tennis (there’s a well-established club), or golf (another long-established club). There’s also easy access to a greenway linking Passage West to Cork City.

The current owner says that as children, they loved their home’s proximity to so many amenities, and “never felt like we were living in the sticks”. He adds that there are good bus services for those going to school in Cork City, which is c 10 km away.

Mr Barry is guiding the 233 sq m property, in a terrace of three, at €550,000.

VERDICT: The kind of property to set TV architect Hugh Wallace’s pulses racing. Will require vision and investment but the potential is obvious.