These birds lay the most beautiful eggs in the world – bright turquoise with varying patterns. The eggs are very pointed at one end which helps them from rolling off the cliffs into the sea, but it is a paradox of nature that thus protected from a watery grave, their elaborate colour scheme attracts the preying gulls who devour them in enormous numbers.

Living carefree and wild on the island these curious creatures have been on Lambay since the 1950s when Rupert Baring had two pet wallabies. In the 1980s, Dublin Zoo contacted Lord Revelstoke and asked if he might take seven wallabies to protect them from a disease which was threatening zoos in Ireland nationwide. Rupert accepted the wallabies, never knowing they would end up feeling quite so at home - today there are several hundred and these unexpected inhabitants add an extra layer of the extraordinary to an already magical and surreal place.

Speaking about the herd of fallow deer on Lambay, master butcher Michael Birmingham explains: “the deer on the island are famous Irish deer that would have its genetics going right back to the folklore times. All venison from Lambay were born and reared on the island and would have the distinct taste of truly wild venison as they forage on the wild gorse, heather and cliff-side flowers and grasses, mixed with the clear salt air off the sea.”

There are 235 pairs of Puffins (Atlantic Auk) on Lambay, which is internationally famous for its wild birds. But why does our Lambay puffin wear a tuxedo? This is a nod back to Cecil and Maude Baring who originally bought the island: Maude’s father founded “Tuxedo Park” in the mid-1880s, only 38 miles from Manhattan, a new community where the dinner jacket (aka the Tuxedo) became fashionable, thanks to New York socialite James Brown Potter.

These birds lay the most beautiful eggs in the world – bright turquoise with varying patterns. The eggs are very pointed at one end which helps them from rolling off the cliffs into the sea, but it is a paradox of nature that thus protected from a watery grave, their elaborate colour scheme attracts the preying gulls who devour them in enormous numbers.

Moving around the island, past the Lord of Karry, we reach Seal Hole. Lambay has the largest concentration of grey seals on the East coast of Ireland and there are several caves in the cliffs much frequented for giving birth to their pups.. When the Malahide Talbots owned Lambay they developed it's hunting potential and seal shooting became a popular recreation there. There is a tradition on Lambay that if a boat could follow the seals, one could sail under the island. Through the years smugglers certainly benefited by following the seals to find the best underground caves. Some years ago, Lord Revelstoke received an offer for seal meat from a Japanese importer, who intended making aphrodisiacs from the meat. The offer was turned down.

Lutyens built a beautiful well within the grounds of the Lambay Castle, which receives water trickling down from the natural island spring. The well is overhung by a hawthorn tree and surrounded by a semi-circular grove of sycamore, ash, oak and elm trees, some of which date back to the early 1800s. Fresh spring water from the island's Holy Well is used in the finish of Lambay Whiskey so with every drop they say you are blessed by the Holy Trinity!

The Whitehouse is a large domestic house built between 1931-1933. Designed by Edwin Lutyens and Cecil Baring, it was completed the year before Cecil died (1934). It was built for Cecil & Maude's two daughters, Daphne and Calypso, who between them had 10 children and therefore needed extra space on the island for their summer visits. The house was built symmetrically to provide a "wing each" for the two sisters, with a shared space in the middle. When Calypso moved back to America, she gifted her half of the Whitehouse to Daphne. Today it can be booked by pre-approved guests for private special events and is also home to the island's selection of Lambay Retreats, which comprise of intimate creative and wellness weekends.

From the start, the Lambay court was unusual. It was open air, one of only two such courts in the world. Cecil Baring was one of the leading amateur figures of his day in the sport of real tennis, earlier co-founding a court at Tuxedo Park, New York, with his colleague Tommy Tailer. The Lambay tennis court forms part of Lutyens’s final phase of work at Lambay. In the 1920s and 1930s Lambay was host to most of the leading British pros of the day. They included Jack Groom, Arthur Twinn, Bill Cass and Henry Johns. Johns remembered in the 1990s that he often went to Lambay for a summer holiday, when still 15 or 16, in order to give Cecil Baring his daily game.

On the 19th January 1854, the largest sailing merchantman ever built in England left the Mersey on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne. Just two hours into her voyage, the ship ran into storm and fog and struck Lambay. Of the 579 emigrants aboard, 80% of whom were Irish, fewer than 290 survived. The ship was rediscovered in 1959 by divers, who salvaged huge quantities of china vessels of willow pattern design as well as brass collars, shoes, bottles of wine, counterfeit money, fool's gold, and uninscribed headstones.

Seal Hole. Lambay has the largest breeding colony of Atlantic grey seals on the East coast of Ireland and there are several caves in the cliffs much frequented for giving birth to their pups. Through the years smugglers benefited by following the seals to find the best underground caves. Some years ago, the Barings received an offer for seal meat from a Japanese importer, who intended to make aphrodisiacs from the meat. The offer was turned down.

The "Joke Moat" – inspired by Turkish gardens, Lutyens loved the tradition of a water feature crossing the entrance to the garden - the idea being that the water would cleanse the energy of visiting guests. (Rupert Revelstoke, as a very young boy, allegedly told Lutyens it wasn't a "real" Castle unless it had a moat - and this was Lutyens' response to the boy!)