On 31 December 1759, a 34-year-old brewer named Arthur Guinness signed a lease on a run-down brewery at St James’s Gate in Dublin. The term was 9,000 years. The rent was £45 a year. It is the most famous property deal in Irish business history, and the Guinness 9,000-year lease is the reason one of the world’s best-known beers is still made on the same site today.
What the 1759 Lease Actually Said
The basic terms are well documented. The lease ran for 9,000 years at a fixed rent of £45 a year, covering a site of about four acres. According to several accounts, Arthur also paid £100 up front, though sources differ on the exact figure and what it was for. The property was not a blank plot: it came with brewing equipment and buildings, and is usually described as including a copper, a mill, two malthouses and stabling for a dozen horses.
Brewing had been going on there for a long time. Records from the 1690s show the Rainsford family making beer and ale at St James’s Gate, and by 1759 the brewery was idle and in poor repair. Arthur was already brewing at Leixlip, County Kildare, funded in part by a £100 bequest from the Archbishop who had employed his father. Dublin gave him a bigger site, a ready-made brewery and, crucially, a supply of water.
Why 9,000 Years?
Nobody can say for certain. You will read that the term was a legal convention of the day, or a way of getting around rent increases, but we could not find a reliable source for either explanation. What the lease did do was remove any realistic chance of Arthur, his sons or his grandsons being forced out. For all practical purposes it was permanent, and Guinness could invest in the site with complete security.
It also fixed the rent. A payment of £45 a year that never changed looked ordinary in 1759 and looked absurdly small within a couple of generations. By 1838 Guinness had become the largest brewery in Ireland, and by 1886 the largest in the world.
What Happened to the Lease?
The brewery grew far beyond its original four acres, and Guinness eventually bought the land outright. The company’s own FAQ says the 1759 lease is no longer valid because it purchased the lands “many years ago”. We could not find a published date or price for the buyout, so treat any specific year you see quoted with caution. One detail is also disputed: Guinness says Arthur was 34 when he signed, while some records give his birth year as 1724, which would make him 35.
See the Lease for Yourself
A copy of the lease is set into the floor of the atrium at the Guinness Storehouse, which stands on the St James’s Gate site. Our guide to whether the Guinness Storehouse is worth it covers what the visit involves, and you can pair it with the story of Dublin’s pub tradition for a wider look at how the city drinks. Check the Storehouse website for current opening hours and ticket prices before you go, as they change with the season and demand.
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