Irish Superstar Enya Lives Alone in Castle with 12 Cats - Video

Behind its stone battlements and gated entrance lies a life deliberately removed from spectacle — one shaped by solitude, creativity, and choice. Curious what that looks like? The photos and video glimpses of the singer's coastal fortress are waiting for you at the end of the article.

Enya has occupied a rare space in modern music. Like Cher or Madonna, she became an artist who did not need a surname. By the early 2000s, she had sold more than 60 million albums worldwide, with "Orinoco Flow" — widely known as "Sail Away" — launching her to international fame in the late '80s.

Years later, "May It Be," composed for "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," earned her an Academy Award nomination. Yet at the height of her success, Enya remained almost entirely absent from the public stage.

She never embarked on a concert tour and rarely performed live. In a 2001 interview with CBS, the singer addressed her relationship with fame candidly.

"There are certain people who are very comfortable with being photographed every day and there are certain people who need it as well," she said. "It's just that to me, I never felt the need for it."

Asked whether privacy was difficult in the 21st century, she replied, "Well, so far, I mean, I haven't really done anything sort of outrageous. I think, like, to begin with, that when you step out of the limelight, there is no kind of sensationalist stories that revolve you then they kind of tend to let you be."

For Enya, privacy was not an act of withdrawal but a deliberate choice. "My private lifestyle bothers a lot of people," she shared. "It's not a hanging offence not wanting to go to nightclubs. What happened to choice? [...] I love the music to be known, but I’m not after fame for myself."

That commitment to privacy found its ultimate expression in stone and mortar. In the late 1990s, Enya purchased Ayesha Castle in Killiney, south Dublin, for £2.5 million.

Built in 1840 by Lord Warren — reportedly in the hope that Queen Victoria might one day visit — the 19th-century property sits discreetly along Victoria Road, so hidden that, as she later recalled, one could walk past without realising it was there.

From one side of the castle, the singer overlooks the Wicklow Mountains. From another, the Irish Sea stretches out beyond the horizon. "It's very castle on the exterior," she explained, "but it's very much a home inside. It's actually a very small castle and I fell in love with it."

The success of "Orinoco Flow," she acknowledged in a 2017 interview, made such a purchase possible. "I wasn't intending on buying the castle," the singer revealed. "But I was actually living in the same area, in an apartment, and I decided I wanted to invest in a bigger property."

The fortress-like residence towers above the surrounding coastline — and, notably, above fellow musician Bono's compound. When told it overlooked the U2 frontman's home, she recalled smiling wryly and thinking, "Hmm, so it does."

Despite its imposing exterior, Enya has described the castle as modest by Irish standards. Originally configured with 10 bedrooms — "very small bedrooms," she clarified — she adapted the interior to suit her needs.

In her CBS interview, she explained that she had taken one floor for herself and created dedicated spaces for her passions, adding, "I have an art room, I have a library, [and] I have a music room."

Renovations reportedly continued for several years after the purchase, as she reshaped the 19th-century structure into a sanctuary that reflected both her perfectionism and her desire for peace.

Growing up as Eithne Brennan in a large musical family, the Irish star first performed with Clannad before stepping away to pursue a solo path.

The decision echoed an earlier chapter in her life, when she left her seven siblings to attend boarding school — an experience that instilled independence at a young age.

"I can't [imagine not living in Ireland]," she once said. "Much as I love other cities and other parts of the world, I feel very, very connected with Ireland. [...] I was brought up in the countryside and it's always been important to me — you know, the feeling of space."

Space is something her castle life provides in abundance. Addressing suggestions that she might feel isolated, she insisted she was content, saying she was "never lonely."

Today, she shares the sprawling property with her beloved cats — reportedly 12 — further reinforcing the image of an artist content within her own carefully constructed world.

Online, reactions to her secluded lifestyle have ranged from admiration to bewilderment. "Living a beautiful fantasy for many women. Sounds perfect," one person commented. "Heaven!! Clever girl 😂," another shared.

Others defended her independence. "Nice place and as long as she is happy who cares if she never got married," one netizen remarked, while another wrote, "Power Move! Good for her!" A separate commenter added, "Don't blame her ..[sic]"

However, not everyone was convinced. "One of the saddest bios I've ever read," one person typed. Another netizen echoed that sentiment, writing, "She's a strange cookie."

Still, Enya has long made clear that public opinion does not dictate her choices. Her focus has always remained firmly on the music — not the mythology surrounding her.

Her success has been as uninterrupted as her isolation, but she does not frame it as solitude. She calls it freedom. And behind the gates of her seaside castle, overlooking mountains and sea, she has built a life on her own terms — private, peaceful, and entirely her own.