Irish Houses & Castles

by Desmond Guinness, William Ryan

Book by Rh Value Publishing

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Desmond Walter Guinness (8 September 1931 – 20 August 2020) was an Anglo-Irish author of Georgian art and architecture, a conservationist and the co-founder of the Irish Georgian Society. He was the second son of the author and brewer Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne, and his then wife Diana Mitford (later Lady Mosley).

In 1958, he bought Leixlip Castle, Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland, where he lived with both his first wife, Princess Henriette Marie-Gabrielle von Urach, generally known as Mariga, and later his second wife, the former Penelope Cuthbertson, whom he married in 1984.

Reviews

[Brenda Conry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a coffee table book. A fancy coffee table. Pretty pictures, a few interesting anecdotes. A lot of architectural talk I only half understand. A glossary would have been nice.
It's an older title, so probably too late for me to make suggestions.

[Blythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wealth of information. The Irish history recounted was fascinating and I loved learning the origin of the phrase "beyond the pale." The houses were beautiful but a bit of sameness crept in after a bit. I have owned this book for decades and finally read it.