The Irish Country House takes the reader on an intimate tour of a remarkable group of Irish houses and castles.

These wonderful homes are not the instant creation of trendy decorators – they have evolved over generations, furnished with heirlooms and cherished hand-me-downs, and exuding the unmistakeable scent of peat fires.

Evocative, specially commissioned photographs show inviting living rooms and tousled bedrooms, print-lined hallways and well-trampled mudrooms. Details capture the distinctive personalities of the owners: a red silk bell-pull against green floral wallpaper, a drawer full of two-hundred-year-old love letters, the curve of a wonderfully carved antique chair.

In their delightful text, the Knight of Glin and James Peill tell the tales of some of the more colourful inhabitants of these homes, past and present.