The Irish Aesthete: Buildings of Ireland Known and Unknown

Since 2012, Robert O’Byrne’s Irish Aesthete has shed fresh light on Ireland’s architectural inheritance. In this new volume, Buildings of Ireland: Known and Unknown, he turns his discerning eye to a remarkable selection of sites in the care of the Office of Public Works.

From celebrated landmarks like Castletown House and the Rock of Cashel to lesser-known ruins tucked down quiet boreens, these pages uncover a country layered with memory: grand houses and fragile abbeys, castles and gardens, round towers and forgotten churches. Some are familiar, many are not – but all are open to be seen, and to be understood anew.

With text and sumptuous photographs by O’Byrne, this book offers more than a guide: it is an invitation to travel, to look closely, and to discover the stories held in stone across Ireland.

‘In putting together the present book, making a selection was perhaps the greatest challenge … my wish is to offer a mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar. This is a personal selection: someone else compiling the book might have made different choices. But it is intended to act as an introduction and a guide to the rich diversity of Ireland’s architectural heritage, a gazetteer that encourages readers to set out on their own voyages of discovery'.

ISBN

9781843519997

Format

Hardback

Publisher

The Lilliput Press, (18 June 2026)

Number of Pages

302

Language

English

Dimensions

210 x 160 x 30 mm

Categories:

Social and cultural Local history Architecture Palaces stately homes and mansions Castles and fortifications