25 Strand Road, Baldoyle, Dublin 13 Asking price: €640,000 Agent: Gallagher Quigley (01) 818 3000 In 2002, Gill and Owen McCarthy returned from landlocked Vienna in Austria to live by the Dublin sea shore. They were on a mission to pick a special spot with one of the best coastal views in order to locate their planned “little home by the sea”. The McCarthys didn’t have to look far, ultimately buying out their relatives’ shares in No25 Strand Road in Baldoyle, north of the Howth
peninsula, a property inherited from a grand-aunt, that had been in Gill’s family for over eight decades. Little did they know that they had bought the former home of the renowned train driver who inspired Dan Kelly’s Cider. Gill’s great-grandfather, Daniel Kelly, was a steam engine driver and lived with his family on Railway Avenue in Sutton in a home provided by the rail company, as was common back then. Passing by some orchards on the train, he helped another branch of the family regularly
access fruit for their start-up cider business. Grateful for his assistance, they duly named it after him and today, the bottle has his name on it, as well as a steam train as its label logo. The downside of working for the railway was that when he retired, Dan and his family found themselves without a home. They eventually relocated to a short row of coastguard cottages facing Baldoyle Bay at what was then called Seaview Terrace. It has since been renamed Strand Road. Daniel’s
daughter, Una Walsh, stayed on in the house after her parents. “I remember going over as a child in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s,” Gill says. In 2003, with the help of Owen’s architect brother, they set about a full renovation of the house, which then lacked 21st century creature comforts like a proper bathroom. The house was, by that point, a three-bedroom property with no indoor plumbing. The toilet was outside. “We completely modernised it,” Gill says. “Insulation, electrics, plumbing, everything.” The three
bedrooms were reconfigured into two to make them a decent size, with two bathrooms added. A modest extension was built at the rear, transforming what had been a very small kitchen into a proper kitchen-cum-dining room. The walls, at least two feet thick throughout, were built to last. The McCarthys enjoyed the view and the beach here until the late ‘00s, when they moved to a larger property in Blackrock, due to the requirements of a growing family. They have three sons; Louis, Johnny and
Simon, now adults. For a number of years, the house was let. Now, with the boys approaching independence, the time has come to sell. Strand Road sits on the coastal edge of Baldoyle village, looking east across the bay towards Ireland’s Eye, with Portmarnock Point to the right and Sutton Golf Club to the left. The bay is a designated Special Area of Conservation and Special Protection Area. In practical terms, this means the land between the front of the house and the sea cannot
be built on. “No matter what happens,” Gill says, “it is never going to change. That’s the one constant.” So on a clear morning, the McCarthys say that the sunrise over the bay is something worth getting up for. In the bedrooms at the front of the house, kite surfers can be spotted on Borough Beach on a good day. In the late afternoon, the south-west facing courtyard at the rear gathers the sun until evening. Baldoyle has a far more interesting history than its
modest suburban appearance suggests. The bay attracted Norse settlement from the late ninth century; the name itself is linked to the “dark foreigners” of Viking tradition. By the 12th century, the area had become part of the lands of the Priory of All Hallows. The coastguard cottages that line the terrace are a later addition, built in the 19th century. More recently, the area around Strand Road has the quiet appeal of somewhere that has not yet been fully discovered, says Owen, making an obvious
comparison with the other side of the city: “There’s nothing on the south side quite like it. If you were looking for something similar over there, you’d be talking about Sorrento Terrace.” Obviously, the railway line is still a big part of local life. Sutton DART station is a 10-minute walk away. “You can do it in eight”, Gill reckons. Sutton Cross, with its shops, restaurants and services, is not much further. The coastal path towards Howth runs directly from the front of the house.
Dublin Airport is a short drive. A few years ago, Gill and Owen had the front wall taken down and a gravel driveway laid, creating parking for two cars and, as a bonus, opening up the sea views from the front of the house. It is a small change that makes a large difference to the feeling of the place, Owen says. Inside, the renovation has worn well. The kitchen and dining room at the rear is generous and light-filled, opening directly onto the courtyard
garden. The living room at the front retains an iron fireplace and looks out across the bay. Upstairs there are two double bedrooms with high ceilings and original doors, and a bathroom. In her mind’s eye, Gill still walks the promenade home from work, even now that the couple live in Blackrock. “Coming home at the end of the day,” she says, “walking down along the promenade some days, you’d be blown and battered, other days the sea would be like a pond. And you’d
nearly forget about everything on the way. It was good for the soul.” The pair had romantic notions, at various stages, of moving back. Owen was a member of Sutton Golf Club at one point and the couple still have friends in the area, but they say that having grown sons has a way of “settling these questions”. After eight generations, Gill reckons, it is the right time to let it go. Gallagher Quigley is seeking offers in the region of €640,000 for No25.
Baldoyle, Strand Road, No25 Strand Road, Dublin 13, Gallagher Quigley, €640,000, Dan Kelly’s Cider, Daniel Kelly, Sutton, coastguard cottages, Special Area of Conservation