Desmond Guinness

The Hon. Desmond Walter Guinness (born 8 September 1931) is an Irish author on Georgian art and architecture and a conservationist. He was the second son of the author and brewer Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne and Diana Mitford (later Lady Mosley). He was educated at Eton, Gordonstoun and Christ Church, Oxford.

In 1958 he bought Leixlip Castle, Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland, where he continues to live with his second wife, the former Penelope Cuthbertson, whom he married in 1984. As a member of the extended Guinness family he has a number of well-known relatives, such as Garech Browne. He has been Master of the North Kildare Harriers.

He and his first wife, Mariga (the former Princess Marie Gabrielle of Urach), founded the Irish Georgian Society in April 1958 to help to preserve Irish architecture of all periods. This was timely as the Irish planning laws were enacted only from 1963.

The IGS became involved in numerous projects and started publishing quarterly bulletins. Some early preservations or campaigns were at: Damer House (Tipperary), The Conolly Folly (Kildare), Mountjoy Square, Tailors' Hall, Hume Street (Dublin) and the Dromana Gateway, (Waterford).

The IGS also held Georgian cricket matches played to the rules of 1744.

In 1967–79 the Guinnesses bought and started to preserve Castletown House, in Celbridge, Kildare, said to be the finest Palladian house in Ireland.

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