One of Ireland's great houses, Cloghan Castle, two miles from Banagher, Co Offaly, is closing to visitors from today. The owner of the castle, Brian Donovan Thompson, who has carefully restored the building, said he is getting too old to continue showing visitors around his home.
He said the decision to close the house was hastened by the lack of support from the local authorities.
As he gave a conducted tour of the building this week, New Zealand-born Brian said he was extremely sorry that he had to close to the public.
"In all truth I am 68 years old and I am getting tired not only being a guide but hanging off the battlements trying to keep the place in shape," he said.
"Like everywhere else, I find great difficulty in finding people to hire, and because I cannot get planning permission to erect a sign at the river to direct people here, its not worth it," he said.
"It has been open to the public for nine years now and we used to have around 5,000 visitors annually. When the signs were removed in Banagher and I could not replace them, even at my own expense, the numbers dropped to 3,000," he said.
"There is a sign on the square in Banagher but it's very small and does not indicate the importance of this house in the history of the local area," he said.
Brian, who became an expert in restoring old houses in the United States, said he is extremely proud of this, the last castle he will renovate.
In his long and colourful life, he has made a career of buying and restoring houses. His first was the manor house of Dowe Court in Bromley, near London.
Another project was Puttenden Manor in Surrey, which he restored and opened to the public in 1965. It was attracting 25,000 visitors a year when he moved on.
He then restored cottages and farms in Co Cavan for fishermen and tourists.
In 1972 he bought the castle, which has been continuously occupied since it was built as a monastery by St Cronan around AD 600, and began restoration work. He left in 1976 for the US and bought 41 Hudson River mansions and began restoring them.
His restoration work there made him a public figure and when he returned to Ireland in 1982, he handed over his business to his son.
"I have had 100 homes but Cloghan is probably my second last. I will live here quietly for a few years but I will probably sell it and move on," he said.
As we moved through the building he pointed out artefacts of national and international importance which he has picked up over the years.
In one room there is a chair on which Sir Winston Churchill once sat. In another corner, there's a sword which was found in the area.
On the walls are pictures of his family heritage including a great-great-grandaunt who was at the siege of Ladysmith and another relative who was in the first British landing party in Australia. They are beside the skull and antlers of an Irish elk.
In the Clan Hall at the top of the building there are coins and bullets and other bits and pieces picked up during the restoration work. On the table are old Irish swords and spears under timbers which are 400 years old and still hold up a roof of stout Welsh slate which Brian, who came to live with his family in Ireland in 1939, carefully put in place.
These lie under the restored battlements which Brian and some local men rebuilt in the early 1970s. From there, in 1595, 200 people were thrown to their deaths.
In the Great Hall, there are the coats of arms of the main families who lived in the castle down the years, the Mac Coughlands, the O Maddens, the Thompsons, the Moores and the Graves.
In the library is a collection of Victorian children's books and a picture of Brian's female ancestors for whom William Allingham wrote Up the Airy Mountains in 1849.
In the drawing room there is a display of blue-and-white china which once belonged to the Duke of Sussex who was the favourite son of King George III of England. It stands beside two pieces of tableware from the White House.
Many of the artefacts have been owned by the Thompson family who, 100 years ago, ran a shipping company in Derry where Brian was educated for a time before going to St Columba's in Dublin.
Today these treasures will disappear from public view for good unless someone in the future buys the castle and reopens it to the public.
A spokesman for Offaly County Council said that it was very supportive of tourism in the area and worked with the bodies concerned to make the area a tourist destination. He said Mr Thompson had erected a large number of signs around the county which did not have planning permission and contravened the Bord Failte guidelines, and some were removed.
"We cannot have a proliferation of signs all over the county and we will continue to work to the standards set down by Bord Failte," he concluded.