Myra Manor, a development about 3km from the centre of Malahide, is home to about 25 upmarket bespoke homes. In 2007, accountant and property developer Richard O’Callaghan and his wife, Ruth, purchased a site at number 14 in the top-end gated scheme: “We had been looking for quite a while in Malahide, but there was really nothing at that time so we purchased the site.” There was a design plan drawn up, with strict guidelines on what could be built which future residents had to adhere to prior to planning.
The couple engaged architect Jonathan Wormald to design their substantial home. The brief was large open-plan rooms with high ceilings (as they had previously lived in Robswall where they had 12ft ceilings), lots of room for their kids and a large livingroom and kitchen.
“We built it at a difficult time [2007]. In those days you were lucky if a builder turned up on a Monday morning, but it was also a time that everyone was doing high-spec homes, so we thought we are going to do this only once and we were lucky that we had the opportunity,” says Richard.
Every box on their wish list was ticked, and the property has five bedrooms over three floors extending to 481sq m (5,177sq ft).
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It has a walnut kitchen by Tierney, handpainted Farrow and Ball colours, with Smeg and Neff appliances and attention to detail evident in an under-pelmet lighting system.
One of the briefs was a large livingroom: “The guy laying the floor in there said he couldn’t measure until the stud walls were in. I had to say – ‘no this is it’,” says Richard of the formal drawingroom. Extending to 700sq ft, it’s the size of many a two-bedroom apartment in the area.
It is light-filled thanks to being triple-aspect and having French doors that open to an Indian sandstone patio in the garden. Two further reception rooms; a family room to the front and sittingroom to the rear, lie at hall level.
Flooring throughout is a mixture of walnut and porcelain with some of the five bedrooms having carpet. There is a lovely sense of space and light to the interiors, which have been overseen by Ruth.
Up the sweeping statement staircase, a middle floor has five generous bedrooms. The principal has the air of a five-star hotel suite to it, with a separate dressingroom and bucolic views of the surrounding countryside.
The top floor has a gym and a games room, a setting that will be a selling point to families with teens.
The property sits on a significant site measuring 0.33 of an acre behind electric gates. “We kept it low maintenance as our son played football there every day with his friends.” Indeed their son Karl, who this week celebrates his 21st birthday, won his first cap for Ireland at under-15 level, in his first international debut against the Czech Republic.
Of the lawn, Richard says: “It’s probably too small for a ride-on but too big for a push mower, but it was another thing on our list; a big sunny garden and this one has a westerly aspect. I had lived in a house with a north-facing garden and said never again.”
The O’Callaghans had placed their B2-rated home on the market in 2020, but took it down due to lockdowns, where they “got to enjoy the house more than ever before. You cannot see a thing except fields to the front yet we are only 15 minutes from Malahide.”
They are now rightsizing from the family home that they have loved for the past 15 years. In turnkey condition, all new owners will have to do is unpack. Karroc at number 14 Myra Manor is on the market through Noel Kelly seeking €1.875 million.
