In Pictures: Too hip to be square in €1.3m period home overlooking Dublin's trendiest park

The Square has mike-led outdoor yogathons, there are tree plantings, musical "happenings", cinema screenings and last weekend they had a dog show. One couple from the area even held their wedding reception there. Right at the heart of the valley of the yummy mummies, Dartmouth Square at weekends is a Bugaboo boogaloo.

In part we can attribute the Square's new lease of life to the wily Westmeath businessman Noel O'Gara, who threw the cat among the pigeons in 2005 when he padlocked all the gates of the then run-down park.

O'Gara had sought out and successfully located the ancestral English ground rent landlord who had held the old deeds to the park. The tile-retailing businessman bought them for a snip - he says for €10,000.

O'Gara then played an entrepreneurial blinder. Amidst much publicity, he announced various plans to build a tile retail outlet, then a car park and at one point, a small camp site appeared. Dublin 6 residents were incensed and the Council was forced to pay out a reported €110,000 for the freehold in addition to a €32,000 contribution paid by residents. With legal costs deducted, no one knows how much the midlands man took in profit.

The central Square was originally provided by the Darley family of builders as a private garden for homebuyers in their Dartmouth Square scheme constructed from the 1860s to the early 1900s. Later, it became a sports ground for Loreto girl's school.

Facing right into its main gate is No58 Dartmouth Square, a six-bedroom terrace house which has just been placed on the market for €1.3m.

The property has been home to three generations of the White family since 1956. The Square has long housed an arty set which, through the years have included, Luke Kelly, Hilton Edwards, Michael MacLiammoir and the poets Donagh MacDonagh and Paul Durcan. The latter grew up in the house next door to No58.

In recent years, the houses have moved from largely business and flatland use to private residenial. Unlike many which have been transformed amidst Ranelagh's gentrification, No58 (built in 1897) remains almost completely unaltered. The entrance hall has its original wood flooring and double arches with finely crafted and ornate architraves - one arch takes you upstairs and one down. Off the hall to the right are the two main interlinking reception rooms and the front room looking out across the park. Both rooms still have their original marble chimney pieces in mixed white and salmon with tiled insets. The dining room also includes extensive double-fitted bookshelves installed by the previous family owners, one of whom was a lawyer. At the hall level return, there is a study with original wood floors and Velux windows. At garden level, there's some understairs storage, a shower room and WC, a kitchen, living room with fitted shelving and two bedrooms.

The garden level has its own entrance and has been utilised by the owners to split the house between two generations of the same family. The garden level would also pack a punch as a rental earner. The upper floor contains the remaining four bedrooms - all of which come with original cast iron fireplaces - and a family bathroom.The master chamber has an ensuite shower room. Down to the south facing rear garden, there's a studio building and a shed.

The house is just a few minutes from Ranelagh Village with its trendy restaurants and boutiques and, from here, Stephen's Green is 2.2km away. The selling agent is Felicity Fox.

58 Dartmouth Square

Ranelagh, Dublin 6

Asking price: €1.3m

Agent: Felicity Fox (01) 6334431