Queen of the castle - meet Catherine FitzGerald of Glin Castle

Even when you live in a 15-bedroom castle, it seems that life still revolves around the kitchen table.

“Everyone gathers in here,” smiles Catherine FitzGerald as she sets a freshly brewed cup of coffee on the cupcake-patterned oil cloth, where the presence of a half-completed jigsaw, a baby doll and a copy of The Dangerous Book For Boys dispel any doubt that this is the hub of a family home, as Sooty, the resident terrier, snoozes by the Aga.

Perhaps it is not what you expect when you first pull up the long drive that leads to Glin Castle, the cattle grazing lazily as the Shannon Estuary shimmers on the horizon.

But it quickly becomes clear that as grand as this house may be – from the entrance hall with its Corinthian columns to its Adam-style ceiling – there are no airs or graces with Catherine. She faces the challenge of securing the future of the 380-acre estate after the passing of her father, Desmond FitzGerald, the late – and last – Knight of Glin.

“It’s such a precious place in the world,” says the landscape designer and mother-of-four who has taken the reins with her husband, actor Dominic West of The Wire and The Affair. “I want to do anything I can to preserve it.”

Home meets history

The village of Glin in Co Limerick has been home to the FitzGerald family and their ancient noble title for 700 years, though the current house was built in the 1780s when the then Knight – who had “bagged himself” an English heiress – decided to upgrade, a la 18th century Room To Improve.

Such was their love of the high life, however, that their finances were not long drying up and Glin Castle’s fortunes ebbed and flowed in the years that followed until Catherine’s father took control in the 1970s.

A lover of art, architecture and history – he acquired his first Baroque statue for a pound from a local farmer at the age of 12 – Desmond had studied at Harvard and had been working at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London when he and his wife, Olda, moved back to Glin when Catherine was just four years old.

“They had a big struggle on their hands to make it viable,” says Catherine, who explains how the family lived in two rooms on the side wing as her parents painstakingly restored the main house to its former glory to rent to wealthy American visitors, while also reviving the farm.

And while Catherine followed in her father’s steps by studying English and history of art at Trinity, in truth she was always drawn to the outdoors, rambling in the woods around Glin with her sisters, Honor and Nesta, wading barefoot in the stream and building “dens” among the rhododendron blooms.

There had always been a tradition that the women at Glin tended the walled garden and greenhouse, and some of Catherine’s earliest memories are of her grandmother and her mother among sweet peas and sunflowers, harvesting asparagus and Jerusalem artichokes, shelling peas or picking currants for summer pudding – her childhood favourite – made with white bread.

Little wonder then that she was drawn to this work, studying with the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley in the UK, as well as completing a post-graduate diploma with the Architectural Association to specialise in landscape conservation and history.

This led her to working as a planting designer with the Chelsea-winning Arabella Lennox Boyd, before branching out as an independent designer and consultant, with projects to date including collaborating on the revival of the gardens at Hillsborough Castle in Co Down.

While she enjoys introducing a sense of structure and a mix of shrubs, perennials and annuals so that there is always something to enjoy, her sense of style is very much informed by tapping into the “soul” of each garden she works on.

“I’m very careful to go in and not to tear out things, or just to take out the things which I feel are damaging what the intrinsic feeling of a place is: to try and restore it back to what I feel is the essence of a place,” she explains.

Taking the reins

And perhaps the same can be said for her approach to Glin Castle. While her parents ran it as a country house hotel in later years, the recession put paid to that, and after the death of her father in 2011, the family was left with the dilemma of what to do.

“I just think he thought he would never die – he was just completely immortal – so there were no plans,” says Catherine, explaining that while her mother was “valiant” and kept it going as long as she could, they felt they had little option but to put the estate on the market.

“We were heartbroken, obviously, having been so attached,” continues Catherine. But when the right buyer failed to materialise, she and Dominic made a big decision.

“My husband and I said to the others: ‘If you are happy, we’ll take it on and give it a go,’” she says.

The task of maintaining a property like Glin Castle cannot be underestimated; if you were to heat the whole house, for example, it would cost €700 a week. Therefore, Catherine and Dominic are trying to generate as many income streams as possible to make it sustainable.

Catherine FitzGerald with three of her children - Senan (nine), Francis (eight) and Christabel (four). \ Phillip Doyle

One of the first decisions they made was to lease the farm, but the current project is to return to what Catherine’s parents did in the 1970s and rent out the house – think Air BnB, but with a castle – to visitors who want to experience a taste of Irish country life-luxe.

“My parents did everything with such a light touch and so the whole atmosphere was maintained,” says Catherine, who believes that it has always meant to be a house for welcoming and entertaining people.

“It’s got the grand hall and the big rooms but it doesn’t feel cold or imposing,” she continues.

If it’s raining outside, you light the fire and have this lovely smell and the fire crackling and you’ve got these huge windows flooded with light; and it’s just a lovely house to be in.

So far, they have an American family and a golf group booked for the summer, but that is not the only way that Glin is being stoked back to life. The castle has also hosted food photography and writing retreats in partnership with Irish company Lens & Larder, and given her own background, Catherine would love to host gardening workshops also.

They will also have their first wedding ceremony in August, while the castle is open for group bookings, ranging from dinner parties to house and garden tours – for example, a two-course lunch with a tour and a glass of bubbles costs €95 per person for parties of 10 or more.

“I am actually getting excited,” says Catherine, though admits that the “juggling” to get to this stage has been tough.

“There’s the four children, Dominic spends a lot of the year in America and I’ve got a full-on job and not enough childcare and then here. But I feel like there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

Irish country childhood

Part of the process has been employing a local team to lead the day-to-day running of the castle, with Catherine and the family flying over from their base in the UK once a month, and during the holidays, where they mostly stay in the wing where she grew up.

“And I’m just jealous because I want to sleep in those rooms!” she exclaims of the splendour of the main house.

Yet, she explains how important it is to both her and Dominic that the children – Dora (12), Senan (nine), Francis (eight) and Christabel (four) – enjoy the same Irish country childhood she was blessed with.

“I’m so attached and I want them to have that. They have friends in the village, they play in the football camps, the soccer camps and the GAA camps and they meet loads of kids and they go swimming in the Shannon,” she says.

“I’m just hoping that will imbue in them a sense of place and about their history, and I mean that’s all I can do: give it to them.”

And who knows, maybe one day the title of Knight – which can only be passed to a son – could even be revived along with the castle.

“My son, if he wanted to, could perhaps be the Knight,” considers Catherine, “but he’s only nine!”

For further information, visit www.glin-castle.com

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