Best heritage homes in Co. Dublin

Kincora: a named Victorian villa that has kept its name

Few Dublin houses still answer to the name they were given at birth, but according to the listing, Kincora has done exactly that. The agent dates it to around 1888 and places it among the first homes of the Palmerston Estate, developed by the builder Henry Coghlan, who is said to have bestowed the name. Temple Gardens itself is described as a quiet road tucked between Palmerston Road and Merton Road. The house presents the confident face of late-Victorian suburban building: redbrick with stone dressings, a strong bay and tall chimneys, set well back behind a railed front garden. Inside, the listing records ground-floor ceilings of around 3.8 metres, ornate cornicing, ceiling roses and fireplaces of marble and brass, and the photographs suggest this richness carries through the hall and principal rooms. Later additions, including a hand-painted kitchen opening to the garden, sit comfortably alongside the older rooms. The long, south-facing rear garden is the other great asset, mature and private, running down to a garage on Palmerston Lane. The agent notes potential for extension or mews development, both subject to planning permission. Here is a family house with a documented sense of lineage, cared for, the listing says, by the same owners for over three decades.

Sandymount Road: a terrace house a short walk from the strand

This is the kind of house that has long defined Sandymount: a mid-terrace period home set behind granite steps and a railed front garden, within easy reach of the village green and the open sweep of the strand. Its classical proportions and fanlit doorway belong to a familiar Dublin pattern, in which a raised hall floor holds the principal rooms above a garden level. Here the hall floor keeps its interconnecting rooms with original shutters, centre roses and open fireplaces, now arranged by the owners as a living room and kitchen/dining room. Upstairs, bedrooms retain shutters and fireplace surrounds, while a large window on the return lights the stair. The listing notes that the façade was recently tuck-pointed and the windows double glazed. The garden level is a genuinely flexible part of the house, with its own entrance, kitchen and newly refurbished bathroom, suited to family, guests or working from home. To the rear, a private walled garden leads to a substantial garage reached from Beach Avenue. It is a home that suits modern life without having given up its period manners.

Herbert Park: Edwardian craftsmanship on the sunny side of the park

Herbert Park belongs to the Edwardian moment in Dublin's suburbs, when red brick, half-timbered gables and tiled roofs gave houses a more picturesque, cottage-influenced character than their Victorian predecessors. Number 20 shows that style with conviction. The listing credits its construction to the well-known builders G&T Crampton, and the photographs show tall brick chimneys, bay windows and decorative gables to the front. Inside, stained glass lights the hall door and stairwell, and the rooms keep cornices, picture rails and a sequence of handsome fireplaces, several with brass hoods. A turned-baluster staircase rises through the house. The kitchen and bathrooms have been updated without disturbing the overall sense of Edwardian order. Situated, the agent says, on the south side of the road at the Donnybrook end, the house has a mature walled garden with a southerly aspect and a front garden with parking. The park itself, a short step away, makes this an especially appealing home for those who value green space close to the door.

Upper Leeson Street: a Victorian terrace with a shared garden at its front

Upper Leeson Street leads out of the Georgian city towards Donnybrook, and its Victorian terraces carry that classical tradition into a more suburban setting. The listing describes number 67 as part of a terrace of six homes with a landscaped communal courtyard to the front, an unusual arrangement that gives the group a distinct identity. The rendered front elevation, with its flight of steps and fanlit door, has a calm symmetry. Inside, the hall archway and staircase introduce interconnecting reception rooms that the agent says retain original ornate plasterwork, while fireplaces and sash windows complete the period picture. Downstairs, the garden level has been reworked as an open-plan kitchen and family space, which the photographs show sitting comfortably beneath the older rooms. A balcony from a return room looks over a south-facing rear garden that the listing describes as bordered by cut granite walls. The exact date of construction is not given. Practically, the city centre is within walking distance and Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club, per the listing, is across the road, making this an urbane house with real domestic warmth.

Genista Cottage: thatch and garden in the north County Dublin countryside

North County Dublin still keeps traces of its farming past, and the thatched cottage is among its most cherished survivors. Thatched, whitewashed dwellings with thick walls and deep-set windows were once a common rural home across Ireland, and those that remain are increasingly rare. Genista Cottage, set between Ballyboughal and Oldtown, belongs to that broad tradition, although the listing does not give a construction date. The photographs show a low, white-rendered cottage with a thatched roof that sweeps up over an arched entrance porch, creating an especially characterful front. Inside, deep reveals, timber floors and cottage-style doors carry the mood, while a fitted kitchen, utility and updated shower room make it comfortable for everyday use. The real romance, though, is outside. The agent describes generous gardens planted in an informal cottage manner, with secluded secret-garden corners, wide lawns, two garden rooms and a working greenhouse. The garden rooms and cabins are separate, more recent structures. For gardeners, makers or anyone looking for a gentle rural rhythm within reach of Swords and the airport, this is a home of rare charm.

Belgrave Square East: a front-row seat on a leafy Victorian square

Victorian Dublin's squares were laid out to give their houses a shared garden prospect, and Belgrave Square, between Rathmines and Ranelagh, still offers that leafy outlook. The listing dates number 15 to the 1850s, and it presents the classic two-storey-over-garden-level form: granite steps up to a fanlit hall door, with the main rooms raised above the street. The agent describes a carved lion-foot banister in the hall, a detail that hints at the original care lavished on the house. Interconnecting reception rooms keep their elaborate cornices, centre roses and marble mantelpieces, and the principal bedroom, spanning the width of the house, looks out across the square through two tall sash windows. At garden level, a polished-timber kitchen and dining room runs front to back and opens to the garden. That garden is a great strength, described by the listing as around 170 feet long, framed by original granite walls and planted with mature trees, with a stone shed and garden room. Parking to the front adds everyday ease to an address with genuine period presence.

St. Mary's: a family house with Arts and Crafts flourishes, held for generations

Some houses tell their story through continuity, and St. Mary's is one of them. The listing says it has remained in the same family's ownership for over 70 years, and that long stewardship shows in a house that feels settled rather than remodelled. Detached on Avoca Avenue, a short stroll from Blackrock village, it combines a red-brick ground floor, pebbledash upper walls and half-timbered gables with a glazed timber entrance porch, a mix that suggests the turn-of-the-century taste for Arts and Crafts detail in suburban villas. Inside, a long hall with a fine timber staircase leads to a drawing room with a bay window and marble fireplace, a dining room opening to the side garden and a series of rooms with timber panelling, working shutters and period fireplaces. A back staircase, pantry and cloakroom speak of how substantial family houses were once organised. The walled rear garden is private and largely in lawn, with a garage to the side. The agent frames the house as one with potential to modernise, reconfigure or extend, so this is a home to live in while shaping it gradually.

Worth checking: The agent presents the house as offering potential to modernise, and the listing describes some older fittings, so buyers should expect that kitchens, bathrooms and services may need updating over time.

Mulgrave Terrace: the quiet cleverness of a Dún Laoghaire villa

The villa is one of south Dublin's most characteristic 19th-century house types: low and symmetrical from the front, with a central doorcase, but revealing a more complex split-level plan within, where floors step up and down from the hall. As a general type, these houses were valued for their flexibility, and number 20 Mulgrave Terrace shows why. From a broad entrance hall, a drawing room with high ceilings, working shutters and an open fireplace connects to a dining room with stained-glass detailing above doors to the garden. Across the hall, the main bedrooms keep their own fireplaces. Up a few steps, a smaller room has a built-in raised sleeping platform, and a bathroom is centred on a roll-top bath. Down a level, a Shaker-style kitchen opens to a patio enclosed by granite walls and raised beds. The photographs show these updates sitting easily alongside the older fabric. A gravelled drive, mature planting and evergreen screening give privacy at the front, while Dún Laoghaire's seafront, piers and the DART are within walking distance. It is a gracious, manageable house with real personality.

Rosaria: a Rathgar home shaped by one family for almost a century

Rosaria's story, as the listing tells it, is one of remarkable continuity: a house dating from around 1874 that has been in the custody of three generations of the same family for almost a century. Grosvenor Road sits between the villages of Rathgar and Rathmines, in the heart of Dublin's Victorian suburbs, and this red-brick, two-storey-over-garden-level house is a confident example of that world. A flight of granite steps leads to a hall door framed by a fanlight and an ornate plasterwork surround. Within, the hall-floor reception rooms have open marble fireplaces, ceiling cornices and centre roses, and the dining room has a bay window. On the first floor, a generous front room is described as a drawing room or principal bedroom, with dual sash windows and working shutters. At garden level, the kitchen keeps what the listing describes as an original range set in a granite surround, a reminder of how such houses once worked, while a conservatory opens to a south-west-facing garden. Gates to Leicester Avenue at the rear add practicality to a house rich in family memory.

New Cabra Road: a carefully restored Victorian home near Phibsborough

Dublin 7's Victorian red-brick terraces were built for a growing professional and commercial class within reach of the city, and they remain among the most liveable houses on the northside. Number 81 New Cabra Road shows how careful refurbishment can draw out their character. The listing says the house has been extensively and sensitively refurbished since 2015, with original fireplaces and a stained-glass window restored, and the hall door's chrome ironmongery renewed. The photographs show a red-brick front with a bay window whose upper lights carry stained glass, and an arched, recessed entrance approached along a Victorian tiled path. Inside, interconnecting reception rooms keep their cornices, roses, picture rails and original floors, while new double-glazed timber sash windows are set, the agent says, within restored original window boxes. A tall stained-glass window on the return fills the stair with coloured light. Down a few steps, the kitchen has an original Victorian tiled floor and a solid-fuel stove. The private rear garden, set against old brick walls, leads to a garage on a lane and a separate home office, making it a period home well prepared for modern routines.

1 South Circular Road: a Portobello corner house with generous presence

Portobello, gathered around the Grand Canal, grew into one of Dublin's most characterful Victorian neighbourhoods, and this end-of-terrace house on the South Circular Road captures that mood well. Standing on a corner site, it combines red brick with granite at the lower level, and its bay windows give the front a lively, three-dimensional quality. A raised hall level leads into an entrance hall with a mosaic-tiled floor, cornice and centre rose, then into two reception rooms linked by folding doors, each with a marble mantelpiece. The bedrooms above, including one with a bay window, continue the theme with marble and cast-iron mantelpieces. The garden level, with its own entrance, offers a living room, kitchen and several rooms suited to bedrooms or studies, giving the house unusual flexibility for extended family or home working. The listing notes that the house has been extended to the side. To the rear is a south-facing paved garden and a large garage/store with access to Kingsland Lane, which the agent suggests carries development potential subject to planning. The canal, the city centre and the Luas are all close at hand.

Royal Terrace West: Victorian grandeur above a Dún Laoghaire square

Dún Laoghaire's 19th-century growth as a harbour town and seaside resort left it with handsome terraces laid out around gardens and squares, and Royal Terrace West is described by the listing as among its most architecturally significant. Number 13 is a Victorian house of two storeys over garden level, with multi-pane sash windows and a bay that the photographs show lending the front a pleasing depth. Its plan is unusual: the hall level holds bedrooms and a study with steps to the garden, while the finest room, the first-floor drawing room, looks over the square through its bay window, with ornate cornice work, a white marble fireplace and shutters. A solid oak kitchen sits alongside. A bathroom on the return has what the agent calls an original cast-iron bath. The garden level is arranged as a self-contained apartment with its own entrance, though the listing notes the internal staircase remains intact, leaving room to reunite the house in future. A west-facing rear garden runs to a double garage on a private lane, part of which the listing says is owned by the property. The seafront and piers are a short walk away.

Brighton Road: Victorian rooms with a light-filled modern companion

Brighton Road is one of Rathgar's established Victorian roads, and number 58 is described by the listing as one of a small number of similarly styled end-of-terrace, bay-windowed homes. The red-brick front and fanlit entrance lead into a hall with cornice and centre rose, then into interconnecting reception rooms that keep marble mantelpieces with tiled and cast-iron inserts, picture rails and generous proportions. The bedrooms above retain cornices and picture rails, and a return bedroom has a cast-iron mantelpiece. The house's twist is at the rear, where the agent credits a modern extension to SOSullivan Design. A double-height kitchen and living room open through bifolding doors to the west-facing garden, and a mezzanine study on the return overlooks the kitchen below, linking old and new in a single view. The photographs suggest this contemporary addition is clearly distinct from the period rooms rather than imitating them. At the front, a one-bedroom apartment with its own entrance could, per the listing, be easily reinstated within the main house. A garage on a rear lane and the short walk to Rathgar village complete a home with both heritage and modern ease.

Mount Vernon: a classical house facing Dublin Bay

The Clontarf seafront has long drawn people looking for space and a view of Dublin Bay, and Mount Vernon makes the most of both. The listing describes the house as Georgian and dates it to 1843, a year at the very start of the Victorian era, when Georgian classical forms still shaped much Dublin building. Set back behind railed gates and approached by granite steps, the house has a refined fanlit doorcase with a radial fanlight and flanking pilasters. The tiled hall and what the listing calls the original spiral staircase lead to interconnecting reception rooms with high ceilings, restored gilded coving, marble fireplaces and shutters. The front drawing room looks across the water, and the agent mentions views extending towards Howth, the golf links and the Dublin mountains from upper floors. A cellar sits off a cosy back living room, and a modern kitchen extension opens to a garden on three levels, the uppermost described as having possible development potential subject to planning permission. The listing also states that part of the property includes ownership of an area of the sea foreshore. It is a house of real character, carrying the bay in almost every window.

Worth checking: The listing states that the property includes ownership of part of the sea foreshore. The nature and extent of that interest are not detailed, so buyers should establish exactly what is included through their legal advisers.

Seville Place: a Victorian city house waiting for its second chapter

Seville Place, close to Connolly Station and the north docks, is described by the listing as a street of Victorian houses, many of which have been carefully restored. Number 6 has not yet had its turn, and that is precisely its appeal. Behind a classic doorcase and fanlight, the photographs show a house whose bones remain remarkably intact: timber sash windows with panelled folding shutters, a timber staircase, marble and cast-iron fireplaces, cornicing and floorboards. Despite surface neglect, the layout appears largely uncompromised, offering an unusually clear starting point for a sympathetic restoration. The agent records that the property is listed on the Record of Protected Structures and is held on a long leasehold running from 1867, a detail that hints at the era in which the street was laid out. A separate rear garage with vehicular laneway access adds scope. The listing also notes a previous planning permission for refurbishment and a rear extension, now expired, and says the documentation is available to help purchasers assess a project. For someone with patience and conservation-minded advice, this could become a fine city home in a very central location.

Worth checking: This house needs full renovation. The photographs show extensive plaster decay, stripped ceilings and exposed joists in the return, and the listing says it is sold in its existing condition, with bidders advised to carry out their own structural investigations. The agent states it is a protected structure, which will shape what works are permitted. The previous planning permission has expired, according to the listing, so any scheme would require a fresh application.