Did Desmond ever discuss his passion for UFOs? "Continually," says Sir John. "He would never stop talking!"

I ask if aliens have ever used the special landing pad. "I rather hoped they would, but they didn't," he answers matter-of-factly. "A ship would be only the size of this room. What would they do? What would they eat? It doesn't make sense."

So does this Leslie eccentricity come from being Irish or just from being a member of the family?

"Especially the family!" he exclaims. "My father wore a kilt everywhere - in New York, in the subway. He once walked 60 miles at one time without stopping. We took it for granted."
And then there is Sir John's ritual of going out to discos each weekend. When he first started doing this, at the age of 83, people told him, "Oh, don't go - they're very rough. You'll come home on a stretcher." Instead, he has become a familiar and recognized face in dance clubs everywhere from Ireland to London.

"They're very wild," he laughs. "The girls are making me dance; the boys are bringing me pints of beer. They are jolly. You can imagine yourself young again … the thumping music, the colored lights. You're absolutely free."

We walk down a hallway, and he stops at a painting of his grandmother, mother, and uncle. The interesting thing about this portrait, he says, is that "the painting is right on the wall." He flicks the wooden frame with a finger, and it swings from side to side. The illusion is brilliant - you naturally assume that it's a painting on stretched canvas with a frame. And then you wonder why on earth someone would do such a thing. But if he or she were a Leslie, why not?

I leave Sir John Leslie sitting in front of the fire. Around him, guests are sipping cocktails and chatting away, oblivious to the fact that the little old man in the armchair is the patriarch of the castle in which they are currently staying. Thick reading glasses are perched on his nose as he squints at the page of an open book, catching up on a little reading before dinner in Ireland's most eccentric castle.