At 77, this Oscar-winning actor is spending happy days in his castle in Ireland. A role of squire that he took on three decades ago.
British actor Jeremy Irons has owned a castle in Ireland since the late 90s. An old historic building that he chose to renovate in his own way, without calling on architects, but which required investing a lot of money.
At 77, the Oscar-winning actor for the film The Mystery of Bülow can boast of being the master of Kilcoe Castle. A residence dating from the 15th century which leaves no one indifferent, particularly because of its rusty ocher color. But also for its two towers, around twenty meters high, a set that the actor described in the columns of the magazine Sabato, as “very masculine, erect like a phallus. On the other hand, inside, it’s like a uterus“.
Jeremy Irons has patiently restored it to its former glory with the help of friends and his wife, actress Sinéad Cusack. “Amateur work done with a pifometer“, he summarized in Sabato. The restoration of this medieval marvel would still have cost more than a million pounds sterling according to the newspaper Irish Independent.
But this project brought new life to the fortress, transforming it into a true cocoon of luxury. According to the 1998 restoration plans, the castle would house a chapel, a library, a vast living space on two floors and even a solarium!
During a report at Kilcoe Castle, Vanity Fair reported that an engraved stone reveals the whole history of the place: “Many hearts rest within these walls. Four years we worked, and we did the best we could with what we knew. And what we did, you see. Anno Domini 2002“. A message that pays tribute to those who helped resurrect this ruined building.
The purchase of this castle even influenced the career of Jeremy Irons! In the columns of Guardian in 2010, the actor confided that the acquisition of his home had pushed him to accept a role… in a film today described as “nanar”. “I had just bought a castle, I had to pay for it, somehow“, he joked about the film Dungeons and Dragons by Courtney Solomon. A feature film which was ranked 39th in the Top 50 worst films of all time by the magazine Empire…
