Cartographers and publishers Tim and Maireád Robinson have bequeathed their seafront home in Roundstone, Co Galway, to NUI Galway.
The Robinsons will continue to live in the house during their lifetime, but have already thrown it open as a venue for the university to "engage with the local community and to share resources and knowledge".
As part of the approach, the couple are hosting a series of discussions at the house and the local community centre, involving the university.
"When we tell anyone of this plan, the response is always: 'How generous!' - but as we will not be here to make any sacrifice in the matter, generosity does not come into it," Mr Robinson explains in his new book Connemara: Listening to the Wind.
"However, this exchange serves to remind us that neither will be here to share in the delight and fun of other people's discovery of the place; and so we have begun to anticipate that future by opening up the house to such events . . . We feel relieved of the burden of ownership, as if we were now just the temporary caretakers of the house, and we revel in the freshening wind of futurity blowing through it, wafting away the spider-webs of anxiety," he says.
The Robinsons have a long-standing relationship with NUI Galway. Mr Robinson, who has published a number of maps, essays and books, including Stones of Aran, was conferred with an honorary degree by the university in 1997.
Prof Kevin Barry, NUI Galway's dean of arts, said the college was "honoured and grateful" for the couple's thoughtfulness.
"The university will put every effort into creating new connections with the cultural life of the region, while also contributing to the social and economic fabric of the village," Prof Barry said.
Minister for Gaeltacht Affairs Eamon Ó Cuív has also marked the official opening of NUI Galway's new Gaeltacht-based campus in Carraroe. The centre is one of a network of four established in Galway, Donegal and Kerry to train Irish-speaking professionals at both undergraduate and post-graduate level.
