Glin Castle, home of the 29th and last Knight of Glin, is up for sale at Euro 6.5m; it is the end of the family’s 700-year association with this part of County Limerick in Ireland.
Desmond FitzGerald died in 2011 with three daughters but no son, and the lack of a single heir so often spells the end of an historic home. The title (he was also known as the Black Knight), which ended with him, was one of three hereditary titles recognised by Irish government, and dated back to 13th century.
FitzGerald inherited the dilapidated 18th-century house (in Ireland a bit of decorative castellation is enough to qualify a building to be called a castle) aged 12. Fortunately, his mother’s second husband was a Canadian millionaire, Ray Milner, who poured money into restoring it and completing work that had been abandoned two centuries earlier due to lack of funds.
FitzGerald became a curator at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, where he laid the foundations for his great knowledge of Irish art and architecture, which he and his wife Olda applied to continuing the beautification and furnishing of the house, hunting down pieces that had been sold over the years. The long drawn-out history of the creation of Glin Castle is recorded by a plaque in the garden inscribed 1785-2002.
He combined this with fighting at the head of the Irish Georgian Society to stop the loss of Ireland’s Georgian architectural heritage, originally due to politically motivated neglect and indifference, then due to the economic crisis of 2008.
But maintaining his own house was a constant effort and 2008 also caused a slump in the earnings from hosting paying guests. In 2009, he was forced to sell hundreds of paintings and objects. At the time he said, “It is my greatest hope that the house will continue to remain in the family and be enjoyed and cherished long into the future.”
The sale raised £2m but it seems that it was not enough, or maybe a life spent in the service of an old house did not appeal to any or all of his daughters. The buyer of the house may also be able to buy some of the furnishings.