Catherine’s grandmother Veronica, wife of the 28th Knight, laid out the formal areas around the house, such as making a central path to create a long vista towards the Persian ironwood at its end, with the topiarised yews amongst the plants added by her parents, who would commandeer willing weekend guests such as Helen Dillon to help them in the garden.
Catherine herself has been extending and tweaking the main garden, but it is in the huge walled garden that her mark can be seen most, carrying on her mother’s use of it for growing produce for the house and adding many ornamental areas, including two long borders, burgeoning with plants and punctuated by Irish yews. It is a sensuous, scented place in which to wander of an evening, breathing in the scent of lilies and the “Dublin Bay” red roses along the south-facing wall.
In recent years the family has opened up the castle to paying guests, whether they be wealthy Americans, such as the singer Taylor Swift, who took it for Christmas; families gathering from around the world for a wedding, or party (someone held a Great Gatsby ball recently); or Dublin companies arranging a weekend brainstorming retreat. They very much encounter Glin as a family home, although there have been some little adjustments to 21st-century tastes, such as a yoga room, a Garden Bar that opens out on to the south-facing terrace, and cookery demonstrations. As since time immemorial, local musicians are on hand to play at Glin, and there is even a dressing-up box, should the desire descend on guests to put on their own mad play for their friends.
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of IMAGE.
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