BBC News Online: Entertainment: Showbiz

Irons defends peachy castle

The Oscar-winning actor incurred the wrath of residents of Roaringwater Bay, west Cork, when he painted his 15th century tower, Kilcoe Castle, peach-pink as part of his £700,000 renovation work.

But writing in the Irish Times, Irons rushed to the battlements to defend the colour of his "beautiful ruin".

He said white was going to be the original colour but he "worried about the starkness of white against the landscape".

'Hotter climes'

He added: "The colour had to work with the green of the fields, the blues of the bay, the greys and blues of the sky, the furnace of the sunset."

Irons had planning permission from Cork County Council to carry out the work on Kilcoe Castle, where he lives with his, actress Sinead Cusack.

The peach effect comes from a mixture of limewash and sulphur for the exterior finish of the seven-story, 100 ft high tower which overlooks Roaringwater Bay.

Consulted

Close up, the towers has a terracotta colour, based on Irons' research of colours used on Scottish castles, but it is expected to fade.

Dúchas, the Irish Government's heritage department, is not opposed to the colour, and were consulted by Irons before he started the work.

The actor said he hope the colour critics would eventually change their opinions.

"Time and their elements will work their unstoppable magic... and just as my mother's new hairdo always looked better the day after it was done, so the castle will look better tomorrow."

Liam O'Regan, editor of the local newspaper, the Southern Star, said the actor had done "marvellous work" on the castle.

But he added: "I can't see why the planning people weren't brought into the question of colour.

"I would have thought they'd have something to say about it. Nobody likes the colour it is now."