Luggala: The Story of a Guinness House (ENG)

Luggala explores "the scandals, intrigues, and heartbreaking beauty of one of Irelands grandest homes" (Mitchell Owens, Wall Street Journal) that has bewitched the imagination of poets, rock stars, dreamers and the aristocracy alike. Nestled in a secluded Irish valley, Luggala is an exquisite eighteenth-century house at the centre of a 5,000-acre estate. In 1937 Ernest Guinness presented Luggala to his youngest daughter, Oonagh, who described Luggala as ‘the most decorative honey pot in Ireland’ and made it the centre of a dazzling social world that included painters, poets, scholars and socialites. In the late 1960s she passed the estate to her son, the Hon Garech Browne, who has not only maintained but surpassed his mother’s gifts both for hospitality and for bringing together a wide range of creative talents. Robert O’Byrne recounts this fascinating story, which celebrates both the unique beauty of this place and the many celebrated names irresistibly drawn there, from writers like Robert Lowell, Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes, to actors such as John Hurt and Daniel Day-Lewis, and above all musicians, including Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, Bono and Michael Jackson. All of them have succumbed to the enchantment of days passed at Luggala. About the Author Robert O’Byrne is one of Ireland’s best-known writers on architecture, fine art and design. Among his previous books are Romantic Irish Homes and Romantic English Homes (also published by CICO Books) and Living in Dublin. Robert is based in County Meath, Ireland.

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