The Guinness, Powerscourt and La Touche Legacy

Luggala’s legacy is deeply shaped by two remarkable Irish clans, La Touches and Guinness families, whose influence continues to define the cultural and architectural fabric of the Estate.

Owners of Luggala A Timeline

• 1788 – 1828: Peter La Touche

• 1828 – 1830: Peter II La Touche

• 1830 – 1840: Peter III La Touche

• 1840 - 1857: David Charles La Touche

• 1857 – 1904: Mervyn Wingfield, 7th Viscount Powerscourt

• 1904 – 1937: Mervyn Wingfield, 8th Viscount Powerscourt

• 1937 - 1970: Oonagh Guinness (Lady Oranmore and Browne)

• 1970 - 1977: Oonagh Guinness’s son - The Hon. Garech Browne (since 1977, part custodian of Luggala)

• 1997 - 2019: Barbican International Corporation Limited (controlled by the Guinness family)

• 2019 - Present: Luggala Estate Limited

Luggala Lodge was commissioned in 1787 by Peter La Touche, a member of the prominent Huguenot banking family. He presented the new house—then a graceful classical villa—to his wife as a wedding gift, and together they spent many lively seasons entertaining in the dramatic Wicklow landscape.

A few decades later the house was remodelled in the popular Gothic Revival style, acquiring its distinctive battlements, lancet windows, and romantic silhouette that still defines Luggala today.

In the mid-1800s Luggala was sold to 7th Viscount Powerscourt, Mervyn Wingfield, linking it to one of Ireland’s most storied estates and ensuring its upkeep during an era of great social and political change. Lord Powerscourt had a passion for deer and under his stewardship was responsible for the introduction of Sika Deer to Wicklow. He is known to have commented, “They are nice little deer”, he observed,’ very handsome, and they get very fat and the venison is very good, and a handy size, rather smaller that fallow deer – In fact, France’s Société Impérial Zoologique D’acclimation presented Lord Powerscourt with a gold medal for his work in acclimatising the Sika deer to Europe.

A new chapter began when the Guinness family took stewardship of Luggala, bringing with them a legacy of cultural patronage that would find its fullest expression in Garech Browne

The Hon. Ernest Guinness purchased the property in the early 20th century and, in 1937—one year after her marriage to Dominick, 4th Lord Oranmore and Browne—gifted it to his daughter, Oonagh. Lady Oranmore and Browne cultivated an atmosphere of elegance and creativity, restoring the interiors and reviving the lodge’s tradition of hospitality. At Luggala, the Estate he inherited from his mother, Garech Browne created a refuge for Irish culture and creativity. On any given day—or late into the night—he hosted poets, artists, harpists, uilleann pipers, bodhrán and whistle players, Seanchóiche (traditional storytellers), and Sean-Nós singers. The house became a meeting point for an ever-widening circle of artists and cultural figures, all drawn by his passion for Irish heritage.

In 1959, moved by an impromptu desire to preserve what he saw vanishing, Garech co-founded Claddagh Records with Ivor Browne and John Montague—a groundbreaking label devoted to traditional Irish music and poetry. Its mission was clear: to give a voice to living traditions, before they faded.

Claddagh launched The Chieftains, helped revive public appreciation for uilleann piping, and recorded an unparalleled catalogue of spoken-word poetry, including Seamus Heaney and Patrick Kavanagh. The 2003 recording The Poet and the Piper, a collaboration between Heaney and Liam O’Flynn, remains a luminous symbol of this mission.

Running parallel to his musical endeavours was Garech’s private intellectual world. His autodidactic nature led him to reject conventional schooling in favour of the conversations, insights, and curiosities sparked by his remarkable circle of friends. He began to build a library unlike any other—one that would eventually house over 20,000 books and manuscripts spanning Irish culture, esoteric literature, poetry, musicology, and rare knowledge.

These weren’t mere acquisitions; they were reflections of his mind. The library became both a sanctuary and a living organism, slowly expanding until it permeated Luggala itself. He was regarded, often quietly, as a rare bibliophile with instincts respected by international rare book experts, though he remained unaware of how revered he had become in scholarly circle

Garech Browne was many things—an eccentric, a recluse, a cosmopolitan, a nationalist, a mystic, and above all, a steward of Irish identity. Through Claddagh Records, he preserved what others ignored. Through his library, he captured a mind and a world that defied categorisation. Through Luggala, he offered a stage for the play of culture, possibility, and joy.

He didn’t just collect books, music, or people—he collected meanings, and in doing so, preserved Ireland’s soul.