This year marks 50 years since Castletown House @opwcastletown (c.1722) opened its doors to the public, thanks to Desmond & Mariga Guinness who purchased the house in 1967 to save it from demolition (for a housing estate). It has been managed & operated by @opwireland since 1994! 
Gosh that's a terrible quality image of Castletown House - here's a better one, plus a beautiful images of the central hall - laid with portland stone. This image graces the cover of the Irish Georgian Society book, published in 2008 to commemorate our 50th anniversary!
Over the weekend my colleagues and I attended an event to honour this occasion and also to launch the 20th edition of the Irish Georgian Society's journal 'Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies' which this year is wholly dedicated to scholarly articles on Castletown.
The red drawing room at Castletown has recently been completely conserved and restored. A new collection of paintings on loan now adorn the 19th-century red silk wall coverings - the silk was worn and faded in many places due to the exposure to light and general wear and tear.
