Leixlip Castle

Of ancient origin, Leixlip Castle was romantically Gothicised in the mid 18th-century by the Conolly family. Strategically placed at the tip of Co Kildare, Leixlip Castle stands on high ground above the merging rivers Liffey and the Ryewater, by a natural falls known as the Salmon Leap.

Mrs Delany, the great Irish diarist, made sketches of the falls and wrote enthusiastically of the drama of the castle's garden walks. More than one 19th-century historical novel was set at the castle.

In the 20th century, in the hands of the Hon Desmond Guinness, it also became a byword for restoration and imaginative country-house decoration, as well as the first home of the revived Irish Georgian Society.

Leixlip dates from the late 12th century. The cylindrical tower seems to be 13th-century, but the castle was evidently strengthened and extended in the early 14th century when it was held by the English crown, then by the Connolly family since 1731.

In the mid-18th-century, Leixlip Castle was extended to include the present library and drawing room. The river-facing addition had romantic Gothic Rococo windows with diamond-shaped panes. They may have been the source for the lodge approaching the castle.

This small, stone building has wild, Gothic cresting and one surviving window of almost identical glazing-bar pattern.

The choice of Gothic was evidently a response to Leixlip's Romantic setting. The castle and its falls had a fine reputation in this period.

Mrs Delany wrote, in June 1747, of the 'large grass walks, set with all sorts of trees and flowering shrubs: openings here and there that show the river so far below that it is almost horrible'. Of the path to the river she noted: 'Every step there shows you some new wild beauty of wood, rocks and cascades.'

Lady Anne Connolly appreciated these qualities, as is shown in family letters (now in the British Library). She particularly admired her husband's property Rathfarnham:

'An old castle with square towers at each corner, and [it] has much the air of an English nobleman's seat... the Park is vastly well wood'd.'

Leixlip was little changed until after 1914, when it passed into the hands of government censor, the 5th Lord Decies.

Neo-Jacobean plasterwork and neo-Jacobean windows were inserted into the library, drawing room and staircase hall. The famous Salmon Leap Falls were tragically submerged by a hydro-electric dam in 1947.

In 1958, Leixlip was acquired by the Hon Desmond Guinness and his first wife, Mariga, born Princess Marie-Gabrielle von Urach, who were looking for a permanent home where they could farm and where Mr Guinness could hunt.

The Guinnesses' restoration and decoration of Leixlip Castle in the late 1950s and the revival of the Irish Georgian Society (refounded by Mr and Mrs Guinness in 1958) is the stuff of modern legend.

Mr Guinness's aunt Nancy Mitford, wrote that 'the Chateâu-fort [Leixlip], furnished as in the 18th-century manner, was the epitome of civilised taste'.

Leixlip's interiors have been arranged in a highly original way, with furniture and statuary on a bold scale, in contrast to the neo-Regency timidity of 1940s taste.

The castle's interiors were painted in bold colours. Lost original fittings were replaced with rescued chimneypieces and door frames from demolished Georgian houses. A collection of important Irish furniture and paintings was made.

Perhaps the most important comment on the early restoration and decoration of Leixlip is in John Cornforth's Inspiration of the Past (1985): 'Already it is clear that it was the key country house in the British Isles in the late 1950s and 1960s, the equivalent of Kelmarsh and Ditchley before the war but in the vastly different world of post-war Ireland among a different circle and having quite a different point.'  Country Life, July 2001.

Our opinion:  Leixlip is a madly romantic and very impressive house.  The walled garden, with blossoms bursting from the herbaceous borders, the swimming pool, the village at the gates, the huge reception rooms, all make it an ideal place for very impressive entertaining. The name of Leixlip echoes in Ireland as the name of  Hearst Castle does in America  The house is of course the original of the shabby chic style, so those who like perfection may be uncomfortable here.  

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