Yeat's last home, Riversdale House, Ballyboden Road, is on
the market again after only three years. Since it was bought in 1999, the
owner has been refused permission to demolish the house and to build a block of
apartment on two separate occassions.
Lisney is expecting over E1.8m from the sale. The house
is set on a 1.1 acre site and planning permission was granted this March to
build three four bedroom detached houses of 150sq m and three single storey two
bedroom houses of 55 sq m. The 18th century farmhouse may be restored and used
as offices.
When plans were being made to demolish
Riversdale, it was met by a lot of local resistance and in June 1999, the house
along with the original gates, piers and arched bridge were added to South
Dublin County Council's list of protected structures.
W B Yeats took a
13 year lease of Riversdale House in 1932 and he lived there with his wife,
George and his two children, Anne and Michael. In 1938, Yeats met Maud Gonne in
the house for the very last time, a woman who inspired some of Yeat's greatest
works. Two of his poems are about Riversdale - What
Then? and An acre of grass.