Glencairn House is the official residence of the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Ambassador

Ambassador

An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

 to Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

. Glencairn has been the official residence of successive British Ambassadors to Ireland since the 1950s.

The house is situated on the Murphystown Road between Leopardstown

Leopardstown

Leopardstown is a district in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County, Ireland, located at the foot of the Dublin Mountains. A residential suburb of the greater Dublin area, it is divided by the course of the M50 motorway, and adjoins the neighbouring areas of Sandyford, Stepaside, Ballyogan, Foxrock and...

 and Sandyford

Sandyford

Sandyford is a suburb of Dublin, located in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County, Ireland. A major part of Sandyford today is composed of the Sandyford Industrial Estate and related developments.- Location and access :...

 in South County Dublin, adjacent to exit 14 of the M50 motorway

M50 motorway (Ireland)

The M50 motorway is a motorway in Ireland running in a C-shaped ring around the north-eastern, northern, western and southern sides of the capital city, Dublin. The northern end of the route is located at the entrance to the Dublin Port Tunnel. Anti-clockwise it heads northwest through the tunnel...

.

The house and its surrounding estate was sold by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in April 1999 for GBP£24 million without having purchased an alternative residence. In 2000 an alternative site was purchased at nearby Marlay Grange, close to Marlay Park

Marlay Park

Marlay Park is a suburban public park located in Rathfarnham in the administrative area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, in Co. Dublin, Ireland. Lying about nine kilometres from Dublin city centre. The parkland comprises woodlands, ponds and walks...

.

The Ambassador continued to live at Glencairn while the Marlay Grange site was refurbished. A subsequent cost appraisal showed that it would in fact be more cost effective to repurchase Glencairn than to continue with plans to refurbish Marlay Grange, and in 2007 the UK Government sold Marlay Grange, without ever having occupied it.

Previous Ownership

At the beginning of the 20th Century the house was owned by Richard Croker

Richard Croker

Richard Croker, Sr. was an American politician, a leader of New York City's Tammany Hall.-Biography:...

 a leading figure from New York's Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...

Croker's funeral drew some of the most respected citizens of The Irish Republic; one newspaper of the day described his funeral as follows:

Luas halt

The sale of the land facilitated the acquiring of a railway corridor for an extension of the Luas

Luas

Luas , also promoted in the development stage as the Dublin Light Rail System, is a tram or light rail system serving Dublin, the first such system in the decades since the closure of the last of the Dublin tramways. In 2007, the system carried 28.4 million passengers, a growth of 10% since...

 Sandyford (Green) line to Cherrywood

Cherrywood

Cherrywood is one of Dublin's newest suburbs, withhin Loughlinstown, and bordering Rathmichael, to the south east of the city, in the County of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown...

. It runs in front of the gate (see thumbnail) and gatehouse of the Ambassador's residence. It began operating in 2010 and a stop/station on the line is built near the gate. The stop is called Glencairn.

Glencairn