Glin Castle, County Limerick, Ireland

Glin Castle is a Georgian country house and National Heritage site located along the River Shannon in Glin, County Limerick. It is an iconic historic Irish house, home to the Fitzgerald family, an exquisite boutique hotel borne out of the family’s heritage and a viable commercial concern. Glin Castle, has been home for 800 years to the FitzGerald family, hereditary Knights of Glin. It stands proudly in the middle of its 400 acre wooded like a toy fortress, echoed by three sets of battlemented Gothic folly lodges. Explore WOOLF historic projects

In the fourteenth century the Earl of Desmond elevated an illegitimate son to the hereditary knighthood of Glin. He built Glin Castle within the village of Glin, which became the permanent seat of the Knight of Glin. John Bateman FitzGerald, 23rd Knight of Glin married Margaretta Maria Fraunceis Gwyn in the 1780s and used her dowry to build a new home in the Georgian style. Later Neoclassical elements were added to the building.

A HOME, A HOTEL

In 1993, the decision was made to turn the house into a hotel to include a further six bedrooms, making a total of 15 rooms for the guests to use.

The conversion of part of the house into a hotel was a huge undertaking, this is when we became involved, advising on the parts of the house which were to be converted for public use. Three years later, the 29th Knight died and, without a male heir to inherit the title, the hereditary knighthood was extinguished.

In 2015, Olda and her three daughters made the painful decision to sell the house and lands that had been in their family for seven centuries.

There was interest from buyers abroad and at home, but none was deemed quite right. For two years, Glin’s fate hung in the balance, until the decision was made to take the house off the market.

Catherine the eldest daughter and her husband, actor Dominic West, committed to making the castle a successful going concern. ‘The house has its own spirit, which won’t let us out of its grasp,’ says Catherine.

THE CASTLE

The present Glin Castle which succeeds the medieval ruin in the village of Glin was built in the late 18th century with entertaining in mind. The entrance hall with a screen of Corinthian pillars has a superb Neo-classical plaster ceiling and the enfilade of reception rooms are filled with a unique collection of Irish 18th century mahogany furniture.

Family portraits and Irish pictures line the walls, and the library bookcase has a secret door leading to the hall and the very rare flying staircase. After a stroll in the wonderful pleasure grounds, the Sitting room with a crackling wood fire makes an ideal cosy gathering place for drinks before dinner. Explore WOOLF historic projects

There are extensive gardens with 15 acres of pleasure grounds surrounded by formal lawns, a picturesque stream, meadow, winding gravel walks and ancient oak trees. The walled kitchen garden is full of charm, romantic borders, rose arches, a vegetable and herb plot. 

Adjoining it is the original stone and cobbled stable yard. The castle also has its own tennis court, hot tub and croquet lawn. There is a strenuous 5 Kilometre walk known as ‘The Knight’s Walk’, which begins at the entrance to the drive, and runs up the hill to a platform where on a clear day the view stretches down to the mouth of the Shannon and back towards Limerick.

The Dining room windows catch the setting sun reflected in the river in the evenings. The room is filled with baronial oak furniture and a gallery of former Knights including a number of notable eccentrics such as ‘the Knight of the Women’ and the ‘Big Knight’. Across the hall, the Drawing room has an Adam period ceiling, a beautiful Bossi marble chimney piece with open fire and six long windows which overlook the croquet lawn - the perfect setting for after dinner coffee and conversation.

Upstairs there are 15  ensuite bedrooms. Colourful rugs and chaise longues stand at the end of comforting plump beds. Pictures and blue and white porcelain adorn the walls. The bedrooms at the back of the castle overlook the garden, while those at the front have a view of the river. Explore WOOLF historic projects

There are two kitchens: a commercial kitchen which can cater for up to eighty people; and a family kitchen with Aga and Irish country furniture. Irish folklore is rich with tremendous stories of mythical creatures, brave warriors and celebrated heroes. There is the monster that swims in the depths of the River Shannon – with its horse’s mane, gleaming eyes, nails of iron and whale’s tail. There is the sixteenth-century Black Knight of Glin, whose distraught mother – according to legend – drank the blood from his severed head after his execution in Limerick.

For more than 700 years the Knights of Glin have lived near the Shannon. Theirs is a tale of tenacity – the FitzGerald family survived the Desmond rebellions of the sixteenth century, the Cromwellian and Jacobite wars, famine and the Penal Laws. Later there was debt, debauchery and bankruptcy, but they hung on.

Under Olda and Desmond, the castle played host to a glittering cast of rock stars, poets, writers, artists and Anglo-Irish aristocracy. Church of Ireland clerics dined with Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Talitha Getty and the poet Seamus Heaney. Paddy Moloney, of The Chieftains, played his tin whistle in the Grand Hall and Ronnie Wood was a guest at one of Catherine’s birthday parties.

‘Catherine had devoted 20 years to the garden. It’s at the core of her being.’ She has carved out a career as a successful landscape designer and is currently reviving the gardens at Hillsborough Castle. She says of Glin, ‘Growing up, my sisters and I roamed the place, making dens in the rhododendron bushes, climbing the Monterey pine and wading in the rushing, stony stream. The garden got under my skin – and for years it’s filled my dreams.’

The longstanding relationship between the village and the castle is central to this story. Glin is a beacon of culture and employment in the local economy.

Explore WOOLF historic projects

The house is now open as a boutique hotel, for private lettings and events, with regular literature and cooking retreats and gardening weekend retreats. The castle is once again flourishing, with an array of guests filling its rooms.