Harlech House in Dublin 14, with its famous gates, is up for sale for a whopping €2.8 million

Buckingham Palace, Gaudi’s Casa Milà in Barcelona and Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater in Pennsylvania are examples of private homes that have become internationally known superstars.

And there are also local peculiarities. In Oxford, the Headington Shark is a giant shark sculpture that pierces the roof of the late DJ Bill Heine’s terraced house and was installed in protest against the bombing of Libya in the 1980s. Revealed in defiance of council planners, it was recently (and ironically) granted protected “world heritage” status by the same Oxford council.

Standout Dublin landmarks include The Gnome House, a former corpo house in Rathfarnham with hundreds of garden gnomes since removed, and Harlech House in Dublin 14 with the famous Clonskeagh Dragon Gates, the ornate steel structure built here Installed in the 1990s and still looks bright today.

When Harlech House was first built in the 1780s by a former Welsh military officer (hence the name), it was located in the middle of the countryside outside Dublin city and featured a significant plot of land and a gatehouse. There was a staff of cooks, gardeners, maids and even a dairy manager.

From the 1940s, parts of the site began to be sold for housing, creating the developments of Harlech Grove and Harlech Downs.

When another Welshman, businessman John Hughes, purchased Harlech in the early 1990s, the original 18th-century country house was chronically run down. Hughes poured a fortune into the revival, which took him seven years to complete.

But he didn’t stick to the Georgian theme. Among the alterations he commissioned were two stainless steel gates forged in the shape of a rearing Welsh dragon. He commissioned Forge Robinson, the internationally recognized stainless steel art specialist led by English artist Simon Robinson, now based in France.

For years (and perhaps thanks to the popularity of Harry Potter And game of Thrones), people visited the Clonskeagh Dragon and often brought their children with them.

Robinson describes the process of forging stainless steel as follows: “To form many of the shapes in any work requires heating to a bright yellow and forging with hand hammers and power hammers, with stainless steel requiring a longer heating time and far greater force.” Work as structural steel. Other processes include cold bending of long curves, cutting and welding, and finishing by grinding, sanding and polishing.

“Once cleaned, passivated and polished, either through mechanical or electropolishing processes, no further maintenance is required, with the added benefit of its reflective property that reflects the colors of the surrounding environment.”

The Clonskeagh Dragon was one of Robinson’s most intricate pieces and he still proudly displays it on his website.

The artist’s work was also commissioned for the interior of the house, which features similarly intricate free-form railing work on the staircase.

Hughes eventually sold his home in 2017 and it was purchased by a foreigner who planned to relocate to Ireland for a time. Unfortunately, this failed and the house was never lived in during the purchase.

Now Harlech House, home of the famous Clonskeagh dragon, is back on the market through DNG estate agents, priced at €2.8 million.

Inside, it is largely modern in style and decorated with a range of artworks, including not only ironwork by Anthony and Simon Robinson, but also mosaic and ceramic work by Laura O’Hagan; Bathroom mosaic work by Mayer from Munich and further mosaic details by Catherine Wilcoxon.

Glass works by Killian Schurmann and Roisin De Buitlear can be seen. The styles range from Art Nouveau to Gothic. Inside, it spans a massive 9,688 square feet and covers an area of ​​0.88 acres. The main accommodation includes a drawing room with 13ft ceilings and French doors to a balcony. There is a Connemara marble fireplace and herringbone parquet floors.

Double doors lead to the living room, which has its own sun terrace overlooking the garden. There is a large open plan kitchen/dining room and living room with handcrafted kitchen units, a Viking gas hob, two dishwashers and a walk in fridge. A sitting room looks out onto the rear garden and a curved staircase leads upstairs.

A ceramic wall mosaic depicting “The Tree” rises from the garden level to the top of the house, flanked by a striking limestone staircase with ornate steel rails.

The house has a game room and a music room as well as a laundry room and a pantry. There is also a family room with parquet and mosaic floors and another Connemara marble fireplace.

On the ground floor there is a garden room with study and a total of seven bedrooms, many with en suite bathrooms. The house also has a library, consultation room, storage room and a tunnel that leads under the driveway to the front gate. Outside there is a detached “relaxation house” and a glass house.

And of course we can’t forget Clonskeagh’s famous dragon gates, which make for a spectacular entrance. Locals hope the new owners will be kind enough to leave their beloved stainless steel landmark intact.

Harlech House, Harlech Downs, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14 Asking price: €2.8 million Agent: DNG (01) 283 2700