VIP* Circulation: 24113 Wednesday, 1 October 2014 Area of Clip: 329900mm² Page: 61,60,62 Page 1 of 5

THE RESIDENTS OF CASTLE LESLIE “We’re very down to earth! sun is raging high in the sky when VIP pulls after a big old house and we generally are very down to up on to the gravel driveway and parks in the earth. We are brought up to have good manners, but not shadow of the towering 16th eentury Castie airs and graces. Leslie. The entrance is grand and imposing, llie interior has an Italian Renaissance feel The upkeep alone on this 1 OO-roomed castle and the 1,000-acre estate has three beautiful must be colossal. We don’t want to imagine what lakes. Everything is colossal, from the sweeping stairwells, your electricity bill might be! to the majestic fireplaces, to the Renaissance frescoes Well it’s huge! It’s about €14,000 a month. Thethat grandfather John Tcslie painted. Here to give us the grand tour is die irrepressible Sir Jack Leslie, 98, a And that’s just one bill! Do you manage to cover Cambridge scholar, prisoner of war, Roman expat and your costs? dance music-mad raver! Guiding Uncle Jack around We do now, but I think there was a period of about the 1 OO-roomed casde is Sammy Leslie, the trustee, 100 years when the castle just consistently lost money. “the botde washer”, the boss. Sammy will play it down Our finances really took a dive in the early twentieth because that’s her way, but it is she who has helmed this century when the Leslies invested their money in Russian estate’s regeneration and turned this Monaghan castle Railway Bonds, on advice of the Queen’s financial into a multi-award winning hotel diat hosted, most advisor. The following year the Russian Revolution famously, Paul McCartney and Heather Mills’ wedding, happened, and most was lost. So, it’s really funny when 1 and houses on its grounds a world-class equestrian centre, watch Downtown Abbey, because many of their storylines a converted limiting lodge, self-catering cottages, a spa resonate. and restaurants. With much pleasure, VIP joined Sammy and Uncle Over the years you’ve had many famous Jack for afternoon tea, and afterwards swiped their guests through your doors, but one of your leftover finger sandwiches! In the magnificent breakfast most famous residents is Sir Jack Leslie, who room overlooking the lake, we listened to Sir Jack pound December next will celebrate his 99th Birthday. the ivories, and down at the stable yard we walked and And Uncle Jack loves to rave...! talked with Sammy Leslie, the dyslexic, cancer-surviving He does! He was out clubbing a couple of weeks ago, director of The Irish Heritage Trust. Truly, we didn’t and he’ll be out again in a few weeks time once his want to leave. chest infection clears up. He missed out on all of that fun and dancing growing because he lost his hearing in Sammy, what does it feel like to be the Queen one ear, and then he was a prisoner of w’ar. But once he of such a stunning 16th century Co. Monaghan heard that heavy beat of dance music, the “boom boom castle? music” he calls it, he just wanted to hit the floor! He loves I feel much more like a benign wizard, or something! I’m dancing and everybody really loves him and looks after like of the castle, and it’s my responsibility him. to pass it on down through the generations. It is such a stunning place to live. The gardens are magical at the We believe you went clubbing to Ibiza together... moment, and doing a shoot like this today makes you We did. I took him to Ibiza for his 85th birthday party. stop and look at it with a different set of eyes. These There he was up on stage at Manumission, loving it! estates were built to entertain, to share and to be enjoyed. He was imprisoned in a POW camp in Salzburg There is great wealth associated with an estate and after lived in Rome for 40 years, as is of this magnitude, but is there much wealth io documented in his book Never A Dull Moment. go around? Image is deceiving, we guess... So, when did he come to live in the castle? Everything that is made goes back into tire estate and In his late 70s, and we all thought he was just going to supports jobs, building and restoration. You don’t get to quietly slide off his perch, but then he found clubbing put a load of cash into your back pocket and swan off and it gave him a whole new lease of life. Old people into the distance estates aren’t like that, they are too often think they are not relevant anymore and that complex and too expensive to maintain. I think there are there’s nothing left to enjoy. Society often tells you that many myths about the aristocraey or landed gentry, if you should go grey and develop mould in a corner, but you want to (’all them that. Wc arc just people looking Jack has broken the mould. VIP* Circulation: 24113 Wednesday, 1 October 2014 Area of Clip: 329900mm² Page: 61,60,62 Page 2 of 5

What a treat it is to get the grand tour of the magnificent Castle Leslie, courtesy of its oldest resident, Sir Jack Leslie. At 98-years-of-age, the Cambridge scholar, former prisoner of war, and Roman expat is still living life to the fullest - he has a penchant for raves, and sp^nt his 85th birthday at one of Ibiza's most famous nightclubs. Manumission. Another resident of the 16th century castle is Sir Jack's niece and Castle Leslie's trustee and boss, Sammy Leslie, (who later sat down with VIP for a most fascinating of chats. VIP* Circulation: 24113 Wednesday, 1 October 2014 Area of Clip: 329900mm² Page: 61,60,62 Page 3 of 5

Indeed. When It comes to your famous guests, Paul was so lovely, so down to earth and great to work Sammy we know that you are eommendably with. I don’t how he picked us. He just came to visit and discreet, but what can you tell us? We’re very fell in love with Castle Leslie. nosy! Well, Mickjagger and Marianne Faithfull came to stay 800 million people viewed that wedding on tv. here in the 60s. The two of them were out having a Talk about putting Castle Leslie on the map! picnic in the garden one day when a local school came I know, and Ulster and the whole border region too. It to visit. Dad had forgotten to tell the school not to come. just validated that it was a safe and magical place to visit. Of course they spotted Mick and chased him around the garden, and he shot up the church tower to get away! W. Do you have a favourite room in the house, B. Yeats and Sir Shane Leslie also used to have bardic Sammy? sparring matches here, and Claudia Carroll’s first book My bedroom! It’s the old art gallery and an entire floor was inspired by the time she worked here with my sister of a wing’ I like all the rooms at different times of the on a film. day though. 1 love die dining room at night when the shutters arc closed and it’s candlelit, all the gilt on the What about Paul McCartney and Heather Mills' paintings glittering softly. Equally the drawing room on wedding in 2002? Christmas Day when we’re all opening our stockings and )

vipmagazme.ie VIP* Circulation: 24113 Wednesday, 1 October 2014 Area of Clip: 329900mm² Page: 61,60,62 Page 4 of 5

1 “I took him to Ibiza for his party. There he was up oh s

Manumission; 7 lovina^ itb” - VIP* Circulation: 24113 Wednesday, 1 October 2014 Area of Clip: 329900mm² Page: 61,60,62 Page 5 of 5

on the boat and row off to wherever, or carry the boat down to a new river. We’d watch swallow's and squirrels and catch frogs in the local sewage works die best frogs “Ihope my lived down there!

Any ghosts in the castle? dad would be All friendly ones! I diink every' place ancient has proud. ” something! In 1991 your father handed over the estate to his five children, and it was then that you decided to take it over. Did nobody else want it, and the hassle associated with it? Either they had their own good careers, which they' would have just had to quit, or it wasn’t their thing. I was the one that wanted to do it and I have always wanted to do it. There was never any pressure.

You were a keen horsewoman, and a very good one at that. It’s nice that you managed to carry your dream back to the castle with the Equestrian Centre. Well, yes, mum set il up in 1974 and then we re-purchased it back in 2004 and with a lot of support from Failte Ireland we were able to set up the most fantastic yard. People come from all over the world to ride. We have a varying selection of different packages to suit diose who want a 10-day riding experience to others who just want a gentle 30-minute hack. We have between 23 and 25 horses - il keeps us busy!

It’s October now, which means Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Three years ago you found a lump, how did the whole experience impact on you? My treatment was fabulous and I was able to work it around my schedule, because I still had a business to run. I didn’t throw up once from chemotherapy. 1 thought T’d lose weight, but I didn’t —shucks! Even losing my hair was fine. In comparison to my divorce, my lather’s death and one of my closest friends committing suicide - and all that happened within a short space of time breast cancer was like another day in the office. I’ve worked with horses for years and having being brought up on a farm I found I was very practical about life and death, and injury' and illness. It’s the cycle of life, so you just get on with it That said, everyone’s experience is different And if you are having a hard time emotionally with a diagnosis you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it.

Tell us Sammy, when you holiday do you like to go somewhere a million miles away from what you are used to? I’ll go anywhere, as long as it’s somewhere that’s true to itself and has soul, be it camping, glamping or Iambay Island, where I holidayed this summer. Hot baths, long walks and nights by the fire chatting in this incredible old castle - really enchanting

We have to leave you now, but are you proud Sammy with how you have brought Castle Leslie back from rack and ruin? It’s really getting there. There’s still more to do; there always will be in an estate this big and complex. But yes, there is a nice sense of achievement. I’d hope my dad w ould be proud. ©

INTERVIEW: Bianca Luykx PHOTOGRAPHY: Kieran Harnett Santa has come dow'n the chimney and the kids are all we’ve had people in all sorts of circumstances. It’s MAKEUP: Dolly Buckley; www.thepowderroomgirls.com mesmerised by the snow footprints on the lloor. I also huge amounts of fun, and Glaslough village is the most love being ‘back of house5 and working in the kitchen. magical place at Christmas. There’s carol singing and Visit Castle Leslie Estate for delicious dining breaks an incredible service in the church and then everybody that include breakfast and dinner in their 2 AA Rosette award winning Snaffles Restaurant Indulge Christmas at Castle Leslie must be something comes back to the house for a big drinks reception. in their Overnight Escape from €115pps at The else. Lodge and €130pps at The Castle or enjoy a twonight It is. We close for Christmas and re-open on the 27th. This must have been an enchanting place to country getaway from €160pps at The Lodge My sisters and brothers and their partners and children grow up? and €190pps at The Castle (includes dinner on one all come, and also w'hat we call ‘waifs and strays’ It was. We just had so much freedom. We’d head off evening and breakfast on both mornings). Tel: (047) those of us who aren’t married, those recently widow' and take picnics, and maybe iide the ponies. We’d hop 88100; www.castleleslie.com Thanks to Mary Collier. 64 www.vipmagazine.ie