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Overgrown trees had blocked the sea view on this steep south-facing slope, where Jane Powers discovers a secret garden brimming with light and fiery autumn tints

- Jane Powers

Cliff House Garden, Killiney, Co Dublin The home of David McGeough and Briony Wilkinson

CLIFF HOUSE, the home of lawyer David McGeough and his partner, Briony Wilkinson, commands an enviable view of the sparkling waters of Killiney Bay. This rocky flank of south Co Dublin was once a threadbare landscape of gorse and scrubby trees overlying the granite hills that fall down to the sea. In the middle of the 19th century, a number of elegant houses sprang up on the steep slopes: some, including Cliff House (then Green Hill), were designed by the well-known Irish architects Deane & Woodward. Other buildings devised by the neo-Gothic-loving duo were the Kildare Street Club and Trinity College Museum in Dublin and the Oxford University Museum. Green Hill was completed in 1862 for Joseph and Fanny Robinson, renowned members of the Dublin music scene: he was a baritone, composer and conductor; she a virtuoso pianist and composer.

The house, set on about 1½ acres, was subject to the stipulation that it should cost a minimum of £1,500 to construct, in order to maintain the upmarket status of the area. It remains one of the most exclusive niches in Ireland: Bono’s house is across the road, whereas Enya’s fairy-tale castle is further up the hill. 

Mr McGeough purchased the property in 2005 from Simple Minds guitarist Charlie Burchill. He set about stabilising the garden’s many terraces and returning the plot to its former grandeur. The site enjoys a remarkable microclimate, sheltered from wind, facing south-south-east and warmed by the giant storage-heater properties of the underlying granite. Frost is rare and the good acid soil promotes abundant and rapid growth. This favoured slope is like a miniature Mediterranean on steroids.