Affectionately dubbed the Guinness Castle, Luggala is one of Ireland’s most historic homes. It is known for its high-profile guests and eccentric owners, the latest of whom has three unique requests for the new buyers of this property.
The 5,000-acre estate was originally built as a hunting lodge by Ireland’s La Touche banking family in 1787. It boasts a spectacular location, nestled within the Wicklow Mountains, and is a 40-minute drive from the city of Dublin.
Luggala became famous as the home of Oonagh, one of the three “golden Guinness girls”, and was a gift from her father, Ernest Guinness, in 1937. The heiress and socialite, who went by the title Lady Oranmore and Browne, was known for throwing lavish parties. The 27-bedroom house has hosted the likes of the Rolling Stones, Anjelica Huston (who grew up next door), Michael Jackson and U2’s Bono, who described it as an “artistic epicentre”.
Luggala takes its architectural cues from the Gothic style, and is full of miniature battlement parapets, ornamental trefoil and quatrefoil windows, and S-shaped ogee mantelpieces. The 19,000 square feet of living space also includes 18 bathrooms, a library, a guesthouse and seven smaller lodges dotted around the property.
After Oonagh’s death, her son and current owner Garech Browne became the custodian of Luggala. He spends a good portion of the year here and has set about restoring the decor of the main house, which is replete with antique furniture, and paintings and portraits by and of the friends Browne made as founder of Claddagh Records. The wall art, for instance, includes whimsical works by Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Jack Yeats, Hughie O’Donoghue and Mainie Jellett. In the dining room there are four portraits in a row of Brown’s friends: Irish poets Seamus Heaney, Thomas Kinsella and John Montague, and filmmaker John Boorman, by British artist Anthony Palliser. A self-portrait of the artist hangs in the bedroom that Michael Jackson and his family lived in for three months in 2006, in an attempt to evade the paparazzi.
See more images here.
Also preserved is Tara Browne's room, the Guinness heir and Garech's brother. Tara died in a car accident when he was 21, and his untimely death inspired the 1967 song A Day in the Life, by The Beatles.
Browne’s threefold request to the new owners of Luggala is that they must maintain the original artworks (including Palliser’s portrait, which Jackson described as “a little bit freaky”); retain all the staff; and allow Browne himself to spend three months of the year in his beloved house and library. Given the property’s size, that’s not a bad deal – especially if you consider the weekly US$23,000 (Dh85,000) rent it currently claims.
Luggala is on the market for US$29.5 million (Dh108 million) through Sotheby's International Realty.
pmunyal@thenational.ae
