Farmleigh

Farmleigh
Front of Farmleigh House
General information
Location	Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland
Coordinates	53°21′54″N 6°21′36″W / 53.365128°N 6.360054°W / 53.365128; -6.360054Coordinates: 53°21′54″N 6°21′36″W / 53.365128°N 6.360054°W / 53.365128; -6.360054
Current tenants	Used when Heads of Government and Heads of State visit Ireland.
Construction started	18th century (with significant reconstruction from 1881)
Renovated	1881–1884, 1896, 1901, 1999–2001
Renovation cost	€23 million (for 1999 works)
Owner	Government of Ireland
Website
www.farmleigh.ie

Farmleigh is the official Irish State guest house. It was formerly one of the Dublin residences of the Guinness family. It is situated on an elevated position above the River Liffey to the north-west of the Phoenix Park, in the civil parish of Castleknock. The estate of 78 acres (32 ha) consists of extensive private gardens with stands of mature cypress, pine and oak trees, a boating pond, walled garden, sunken garden, out offices and a herd of rare native Kerry cattle. It was purchased by the Government of Ireland from the 4th Earl of Iveagh in 1999 for €29.2 million. A state body—the Office of Public Works (OPW)—spent in the region of €23 million restoring the house, gardens and curvilinear glasshouses, bringing the total cost to the state to €52.2 million. Farmleigh was opened to the public in July 2001.

Farmleigh was once a small (two-storey) Georgian house built in the mid-18th century. It originally belonged to the Coote and then Trench families.Farmleigh Bridge was added to the estate in the 1870s to carry electricity lines from the mill race turbine on the Strawberry Beds to the house.

In 1873 the estate and house was purchased by Edward Guinness (1847–1927) when he married his cousin Adelaide Guinness. He was a great-grandson of Arthur Guinness and was created Baron Iveagh in 1891 and Earl of Iveagh in 1919.

Edward Guinness commissioned a major renovation and extension programme to extend the house to the west and add a third floor. These works took place between 1881 and 1884 and were completed to designs by Irish architect James Franklin Fuller. A ballroom was added in 1896, designed by the Scottish architect William Young. The conservatory was added in 1901.