Christmas shopping needn't be stress-riden, and it won't be if you do it in the rarified atmosphere of Dunsany Castle, in Co Meath, where Marie Alice Plunkett has turned one wing of the 12th century castle into a fascinating shop. The Brazilian-born Marie Alice, an architect with a company in the US, has trawled through Europe to find new and antique items to sell under the Dunsany Home Collection label. Crisp new and vintage table linens, ceramic tableware and flatware, embroidered bed linen and bath towels are displayed among lavish arrangements of dried and fabric flowers. Many of the items are exclusive to Marie Alice in Ireland.

The shop is laid out as a series of rooms, the most impressive of which is a vaulted dining hall whose walls are decorated with hunting trophies. Here, a long table is laid for a casual dinner with elegant rattan servers, coloured linen cloth and napkins and huge storm lanterns on either side of an extravagant display of fabric flowers. A side table is covered with an exquisite Italian organza cloth, strewn with hand embroidered daisies and dots. This is one of a number of cloths that Mrs Plunkett commissions in Italy and Portugal, including Irish linen that is embroidered to her designs. Beyond the diningroom is a smaller room with stunning table centrepieces fashioned from single artificial plants bedded in a moss in tall glasses.

Just down the corridor is a bedroom with a huge brass bed dressed in embroidered Egyptian cotton sheets and an embroidered linen bedspread.

Even the bathroom is part of the shop - its chrome towel rails are lined with old linen hand-towels, some initialled, some trimmed in lace. Items start at £20 and climb into the thousands.

The Dunsany Home Collection, Dunsany Castle, Dunsany, Co Meath. Tel: 046 26202. Opening hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; after 6p.m. by appointment.