Go on a journey with Robert O’Byrne as he brings fascinating Irish ruins to life. Fantastical, often whimsical, and frequently quirky, these atmospheric ruins are beautifully photographed and paired with fascinating text by Robert O’Byrne. Born out of Robert’s hugely popular blog, The Irish Aesthete, there are Medieval castles, Georgian mansions, Victorian lodges, and a myriad of other buildings, many never previously published. Robert focuses on a mixture of exteriors and interiors in varying stages of decay, on architectural details, and entire scenarios. Accompanying texts tell of the Regency siblings who squandered their entire fortune on gambling and carousing, of an Anglo-Norman heiress who pitched her husband out the window on their wedding night, and of the landlord who liked to walk around naked and whose wife made him carry a cowbell to warn housemaids of his approach. Arranged by the country’s four provinces, the diverse ruins featured offer a unique insight into Ireland and an exploration of her many styles of historic architecture.

Go on a journey with Robert O'Byrne as he brings fascinating Irish ruins to life. Inspired by his passionate interest in Ireland's architectural heritage and concern for its preservation, in 2012 writer Robert O'Byrne created a blog called The Irish Aesthete. He subsequently moved onto other social media and now The Irish Aesthete is an established presence on Facebook, Twitter, and on YouTube where Robert started his own channel in 2020. The Irish Aesthete has also established a strong and ever-growing presence on Instagram where he has over 37,000 followers. Architects, designers, decorators and historians from around the world now come to The Irish Aesthete for information on Ireland's historic architecture. Having never owned a camera, from the beginning Robert O'Byrne used his mobile phone, teaching himself how to make good pictures that would hold the attention of viewers. Since then, his photographs have received widespread acclaim and appeared on book covers, in magazine and newspaper articles and on many other sites. To mark The Irish Aesthete's tenth anniversary in 2022, he presented a complete set of these images to the Irish Architectural Archive. Robert's collection of photographs, covering everything from grand country houses to ancient monasteries, now runs to over 100,000 images and covers all 32 counties in Ireland. This new volume will contain over 160 of O'Byrne's own selection of his best work with photographs accompanied by descriptions and anecdotes.

The gripping story of the tumultuous destruction of the Irish country house, spanning the revolutionary years of 1912 to 1923 During the Irish Revolution nearly three hundred country houses were burned to the ground. These “Big Houses” were powerful symbols of conquest, plantation, and colonial oppression, and were caught up in the struggle for independence and the conflict between the aristocracy and those demanding access to more land. Stripped of their most important artifacts, most of the houses were never rebuilt and ruins such as Summerhill stood like ghostly figures for generations to come. Terence Dooley offers a unique perspective on the Irish Revolution, exploring the struggles over land, the impact of the Great War, and why the country mansions of the landed class became such a symbolic target for republicans throughout the period. Dooley details the shockingly sudden acts of occupation and destruction—including soldiers using a Rembrandt as a dart board—and evokes the exhilaration felt by the revolutionaries at seizing these grand houses and visibly overturning the established order.

Irish houses have a character and personality quite different from that found anywhere else. Quixotic, often whimsical and definitely quirky, they provide a sanctuary from the Irish climate, which is frequently gray, cold, and damp. No wonder, therefore, that over the centuries Ireland's domestic architecture and interior design have developed a distinctive personality in which color and vivacity are highly prized. Romantic Irish Homes presents 15 of the finest examples of these traits, each one of them distinctive and yet sharing the same native spirit. From vast ancient castles through sturdy Georgian manors to small farmhouses, the majority of them never previously photographed, the homes featured here offer a unique insight into the Irish temperament and an exploration of a style of decoration that, while adapted to meet 21st-century demands, still retains an historic integrity. Photographed by Simon Brown, Romantic Irish Homes is every bit as charming and memorable as the Irish people themselves.

Castles are the most familiar medieval landmark across the Irish countryside. Their often romantic appearance belies their turbulent history and their lore abounds in stories of sieges, betrayals and daring escapes. From the earliest stone castles such as Dublin Castle to the fortified manor houses such as Red Hugh O'Donnell's Donegal Castle, each has a fascinating and individual story to tell. Castles of Ireland brings the reader on a tour of more than sixty castles, from the biggest and most well-known to dramatic and atmospheric ruins which had a role to play in shaping Ireland's history.

A stunning collection of photographs of abandoned Irish country mansions, offering a glimpse into what were some of Ireland's most distinguished homes.