Russborough is one of Ireland’s great country houses, a Palladian house of major European significance, built between 1741 and 1751 for Joseph Leeson, 1st Earl of Milltown. The house and designed landscape represents one of the most complete and intact works by the architect Richard Castle, the most accomplished country house architect in Ireland of the early eighteenth century. The house contains some of the most important mid-eighteenth century interiors, displaying the finest craftsmanship of the period including decorative plaster attributed to the celebrated migrant stuccodores, brothers Paolo and Filippo Lafranchini. Its historic contents are of exceptional interest, associated with the internationally important Milltown and Beit collections. Russborough, one of very few houses in Ireland privately owned for public benefit, is managed by the Alfred Beit Foundation. A charitable trust set up by Sir Alfred and Lady Clementine Beit in 1976 to secure the future of Russborough and keep the house and the collections accessible to the public. Among the many highlights on view are more than fifty paintings and drawings, Madame de Pompadour’s water spaniel, created for her by the Vincennes porcelain factory c.1753 and magnificent Louis XIV tapestries. There is a fine collection of English and European furniture, along with French clocks, Steinway and Bluthner pianos, a scagliola console table from Vallambrosa dated 1750 and a gilt bronze microscope by Gozzi of Parma, dated 1771. There is no more fitting home than Russborough for these exceptional achievements in the areas of art, design and craftsmanship. Continued public access to the Beit Collection at Russborough makes a valuable and unique contribution to Ireland’s cultural resources.