historic hotels ireland

In the middle of the small town, impressive gates open into a long forecourt, at the end of which is the splendid red-brick facade of this former Archbishop's Palace, built c. 1731 and designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, architect of the old Parliament House in Dublin. I had wondered whether a town setting would prove noisy, but the hotel is set well back from the traffic in a peaceful, sheltering garden. The pillared entrance hall is imposing. Panelled in pine, painted a delicate apricot,...

Only fourteen miles from Dublin, standing amid fields decoratively dotted with cows and sheep, this elegant Georgian manor suggests the richness of its interiors by the extravagant number of flower-filled hanging baskets, window-boxes, and urns which adorn its facade. The beautifully porportioned hall is filled with furniture. There are two conservatories and a vast and elegant dining room where a huge mahogany sideboard groans under massive silver dishes and cut-glass decanters.

The...

Beside the now little-travelled old coaching road from Dublin to Wicklow, which still winds and twists through wooded countryside, stands Hunter's Hotel. It has always been an inn. A cobbled entrance leads to a graceful Georgian doorway, and into a red-and-black tiled hall, worn by the feet of travellers, and polished to a high gloss. A creaking staircase leads up to a wide landing, decorated with painted china basins and ewers, once in daily use. In the hall hangs a pair of enormous ox horn...

Lady Levinge of Clohamon was born in this castle, which stands on its own 310-acre island in the middle of the river Suir. Her grandfather, much married, was a noted local personality, her mother, who later became Princess d'Ardia Caracciolo, was a famous thirties beauty, who, it is said, had been known to swim the river when returning home from a hunt ball. The castle was built in the 1160s and had wings added in the 19th century. Now it has been bought by a wealthy local farmer and transf...