Located at the roundabout junction of Upper Glenageary and Upper Albert roads is Rosney House, set behind mature trees that offer much privacy. The early Victorian pile accessed from Albert Road is a protected structure and dates back to the 1830s.
It was last for sale in 1967, when it was purchased by the late journalist, author and art dealer Bruce Arnold, who died in May 2024.
Along with former Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy, Arnold won a historic civil action against the State in 1988 in a case that succeeded in breaking new ground on the constitutional right to privacy and curbing a politically motivated abuse of State power.
The case arose from events which had taken place six years earlier, in 1982, when Kennedy, then a political correspondent with the Sunday Tribune, and Arnold, a parliamentary correspondent with the Irish Independent, had their phones tapped on the orders of the then Fianna Fáil minister for justice Seán Doherty.
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While Doherty resigned his position and quit the party when details of the phone tapping emerged, then taoiseach Charles Haughey emerged unscathed from the affair. He remained that way until 1992 when Doherty appeared on RTÉ‘s Nighthawks programme to say that he had shown transcripts of the journalists’ recorded phone conversations to him.
Arnold and his late wife, Mavis, raised their family at Rosney House as daughter Polly fondly recalls: “We moved here when I was two and I remember dad later saying when he first came to have a look, that the house had an incredibly happy spirit to it. It almost was like a character in our family and all my friends really loved coming here when we were growing up.”
Set on a 0.2 hectare (0.7 acre) site, which includes well-stocked herbaceous borders and a now overgrown rose garden, there is a lot on offer at Rosney House.
With 464sq m (4,994sq ft) of floor space, the main house is believed to be the work of John Skipton Mulvany, the noted architect who was responsible for the design of the Royal Irish Yacht Club and Harold’s Cross Church. Though not listed on the Dictionary of Irish Architects website as so, Arnold had engaged a researcher to establish the provenance of his home. “We know [Skipton Mulvany] lived and worked in the area. As the designs were so similar to other works by [him] it was presumed that he was the original architect,” Polly says.
First appearing as Rosney Cottage on 1843 Ordnance Survey maps – when the only other house listed on the Dublin side of Albert Road was Haddington House – the property has been somewhat altered over the years.
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Architect Martin Reynolds, who first surveyed the property in 1968, later did work on an adjacent mews building, which was originally a stable wing of the property. It is now a three-bedroom 140sq m (1,507sq ft) offering, with the potential to generate additional income or work as a granny flat.
In essence, what is on offer here are two houses in a most sought after coastal part of the capital.
While the main house, which has seven bedrooms, would benefit from modernisation – as it had been home to the Arnolds for almost 60 years – it retains the bones of a fine property. Flooded with light and of solid construct, the eye of a good conservation architect could really transform this house for 21st-century living.
Inside the entrance porch lies a huge gallery-style central atrium, off which main reception rooms and four bedrooms lie. A diningroom that was, in a previous life, a library has particularly detailed cornice and centre rose work, as does a drawingroom, which also has an attractive fireplace.
Four bedrooms and four bathrooms lie off the central atrium, while a staircase leads down to a myriad of rooms at garden level. There are two good sized storage rooms alongside a wine cellar, in addition to three further bedrooms, a large kitchen, pantry, livingroom, sunroom and a study.
The mews, last modernised in 2018, is in great condition and retains its own sense of privacy.
Rosney House offers tremendous potential as a fine family home, with the added bonus of the three bedroom mews. There was also (since lapsed) permission to construct a single storey two bedroom bungalow on the grounds, so there is precedence for same.
Located 12km from Dublin city centre, the property enjoys the best of both worlds. Despite being in a peaceful setting, it has easy access to the coastal villages of Sandycove and Glasthule, with tennis, sailing clubs and a host of walks and amenities nearby.
As it is a protected structure, Rosney House is Ber-exempt and is now on the market through Sherry FitzGerald seeking €3.25 million.
