The Hotel Examiner: Read our reviews of some of Ireland's top-rated hotels
Adare Manor, Co Limerick
Impressive and opulent with wonderful staff, this luxurious hotel wants you to have fun while enjoying serious comfort. Our reviewer, travel editor Jillian Bolger, clearly aligns with Adare's ranking as the best hotel in Ireland. Her 10/10 review says the landmark property delivers 'everything you'd expect from a leading five-star estate'.
Read our review here.
The Merrion, Dublin
Fashioned from four adjoining Georgian townhouses, built in the 1760s as the homes of nobility and notable merchants, the handsome heritage property looks across to Government Buildings and is a saunter to St Stephen's Green and Grafton Street. Earning a 9.5/10 score from our reviewer, Jillian was particularly taken by The Merrion's style and design. 'Comfortable and elegant, it offers a stylish cocoon away from the city centre's busy-ness.'
Read our review here.
Harvey's Point, Co Donegal
A warm welcome was among the standouts for Jillian at Harvey's Point, which she awarded 8.5/10. 'The welcome at Harvey's Point is just as I'd hoped. Warm, emphatic and authentic, we are greeted by concierge Ailish McGlone, sister of former owner Deirdre and Marc Gysling,' she writes.
Read our review here.
Hayfield Manor, Cork
Old world elegance and brilliant staff make Cork city's five-star Hayfield Manor shine, Jillian writes after her 9.5/10 stay. 'Despite being walking distance from the city centre, this Ireland's Blue Book property offers a real sense of rural escapism, thanks to private and fabulously leafy grounds in a mature, residential area.'
Read our review here.
Dromoland Castle, Co Clare
Dromoland Castle scooped a 9/10 rating from reviewer Thom Breathnach earlier this year, for whom iot was love at first sight. 'Winding down its woodland and fairway-flanked driveway, Dromoland Castle emerges across the lake and fluttering bulrushes with legendary impact prompting, in my case, an audible 'wow' moment,' he writes.
Read our review here.
Intercontinental Dublin
Dublin's Intercontinental Hotel, ranked 19th in Ireland by Tripadvisor, failed to elicit such a positive response from Jillian last September after the dinner service left a sour taste.
'Things fall apart at dinner where service swings between friendly, forgetful, and careless,' she writes, adding: 'Dirty tables pile up around us and the staff seem more intent on clearing these than looking after diners.'
Read our review here.
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Irish Independent
20-06-2025
- Irish Independent
‘We used a saw to cut a hole into the wall and realised it was an old back stairs area' – hidden tunnels and secret rooms in Co Cork
Asking price: €1.6m Agent: Hegarty Properties (021) 4639411 A hidden tunnel, a secret room and links to the Knights Templar lend plenty of intriguing lore to historic Carewswood House, a five-bedroom, 4,823 sq ft pocket mansion which was originally constructed as a dower house to Castlemartyr House, now a resort hotel. Sitting on three acres, Carewswood still has the boarded up tunnel running from its basement area which likely served a dual purpose for the dowagers (widowed mothers or unmarried sisters) of the Earls of Shannon, who constructed Castlemartyr in the 18th century. While the dowager could walk back and forth to the 'Big House' along its covered 2km-plus length, without being exposed to the elements, the tunnel also provided for a failsafe escape in either direction back in fraught times when the natives were a good deal more antsy. Castlemartyr House, part of the Castlemartyr Resort, is beside the castle founded by the Knights Templar in 1210 under the leadership of Richard de Clare, better known as Strongbow. Following the seizure of the estate after the Geraldine Wars, these lands were handed over to Sir Walter Raleigh who later sold them on in 1602 to the Earl of Shannon. Earl Richard Boyle constructed an estate home there in the 1700s, and Carewswood followed, likely in 1814, just 2.4km away. 'In those days, the mother of the heir moved out of the house once her husband passed away and the son and heir remarried and took over the main house, and she would have lived here,' says its owner Gill Hornibrook, who comes from the locality. She bought the property in 1996 with her husband, the late Jack Hornibrook who headed up Hornibrook Builders. The couple had been living in nearby Glendonagh House, a 14-bedroom estate house, which they'd transformed into private nursing home. 'Glendonagh was a Victorian-style house and we'd always wanted a Georgian home,' she says. 'We were attracted to the size of Carewswood. It was the perfect place to raise our four daughters.' The previous owners had added a new roof, a maple floor in the kitchen and a mahogany floor in the dining room, both of which came from an old hotel in Midleton. 'It was a very basic Georgian house when we bought it but we did a major amount of work on it.' The reception rooms include a sitting room, a dining room and a TV room, all of which the couple updated and redecorated. 'We removed all of the old wallpaper and re-plastered and painted the walls, and had the plasterwork in the high ceilings repaired.' They added a front porch with French doors to the south-east facing front and insulated the walls throughout, contributing to its C-BER rating, unusual in a house this age. 'Given that my husband already had a team of craftsmen working for him, everything was done to a very high standard,' she says. 'In the hallway, for example, we searched everywhere to find old limestone to replace the existing slabs. It proved impossible, so we laid Travertine marble instead.' In the kitchen, they installed an Aga stove and had bespoke white solid wood units constructed and added a white dresser and a Belfast sink in the island. 'The island counter is teak and came from a night club,' explains Hornibrook. 'Everyone who comes into the kitchen comments on it.' Off the kitchen are two utility rooms. It opens to an east-facing sunroom which has underfloor heating. 'It's a lovely comfortable room that gets the sun all day,' she adds. Whilst renovating it, the couple came across a secret room which was boarded-up. 'My husband calculated that there was six feet of space extra between the wall and the door and thought there had to be something there. One of his carpenters used a saw to cut a hole that allowed us to see into the space and we realised it was an old back stairs area.' The rediscovered room was renovated and turned into a traditional bar which has high stools, a piano and seating along the wall. 'We've had some great family parties here,' says Hornibrook. 'All four of my daughters got married in Castlemartyr Resort and all of their 'day two parties' were held in the house.' There's also original granite steps leading to a basement, which houses a pool table. 'The steps are quite worn and we think that the same servants probably went between the two houses by foot.' Upstairs, there are five double bedrooms, all with en suite bathrooms (added by the couple). 'We've gone to great trouble to maintain the Georgian style in all of the rooms. It's a comfortable house without being ostentatious, and everyone feels at home here.' There's an outdoor courtyard at the back which they renovated in a Mediterranean style with Indian sandstone underfoot. Here, there's an outdoor office, a potting room for the garden and an outdoor bathroom. The original walls surrounding the estate still stand and there's a 1km driveway leading up to it. The grounds contains a Koi pond, a fountain and oak trees that are over 200 years old. The house comes with one-bedroom Gate Lodge, which they've also renovated. 'It had a tree growing in it when we bought the house,' laughs Hornibrook. Sadly, husband Jack died in 2023 so she's now downsizing to a house in Kinsale. 'I hope a family with young children buys it and looks after it because, really, we're just custodians of houses like this.' Hegarty Properties seeks €1.6m.
The Irish Sun
20-06-2025
- The Irish Sun
Quaint UK town hiding ‘Disney for history buffs' attraction that's loved by Countryfile star
AN unusual attraction that is a "Disney for history lovers" has been raved about by a Countryfile star. Matt Baker, currently appearing in 5 Beamish is a living museum in the North of England Credit: Alamy 5 There are old-fashioned shops in the recreated town Credit: Alamy When Sun Travel asked He continued: "It's the best open air museum in the world, without question. "Basically what they do is take down buildings in the North East and put them back up at "It's amazing, it's basically the North East through the ages and you can spend days there." Read More on UK Attractions It brings the history of North East England to life. You can have a Georgian experience at Pockerly Old Hall or see how families lived and worked in the years leading up to the First World War in the 1900s. One of the recent installations was Spain's Field Farm which stood for centuries in Eastgate near Weardale in Durham. It was then dismantled and transported to the museum, where it was been carefully rebuilt to show 1950s life on the region's upland farms. Most read in Family In 2024 Beamish opened a new 1950s town, which includes a toy shop, welfare hall and a cinema that had been taken from Ryhope in There's also a pub, a school, a dentist among its businesses and you can ride on the trams and buses, and explore the railway station too. Matt Baker Explores the British Isles 5 And there are old-school buses too Credit: Alamy Matt added: "There's loads of exhibitions and shops, you can have coal-fired fish and chips, it's the most brilliant day out." "It's like Disney World for history buffs - that's the only way I can describe it. You get transported back in time, it's a proper immersive experience." You can even see Matt on a trip to the living museum if you catch up on one of his previous shows. He told us: "I did a series called 'Travels with Mum & Dad' and we went all over the North East, so if you are fascinated and want to find out more watch that because we went to Beamish." 5 Matt Baker reveals the place in Durham everyone should visit Credit: Channel 4 Tickets to the open air museum are unlimited passes so once you've been once, you can visit for the whole year including daytime events. Adult tickets cost £33, senior and student tickets cost £25, children between 5-16 are £20. As for other places to explore around his stomping ground, Matt recommended He also suggested taking a walk in the Durham Dales and strolling along the coastline. Currently the Countryfile star is on an adventure He's found beautiful beaches on the Northern Irish coastline and discovered tasty sparkling wine at a Champagne-worthy vineyard in Kent. Watch the final episode Matt Baker's British Isles on Tuesday 24, at 9pm on More4. Catch up on all previous episodes on This And this 5 There are trams and tractors that you can hop on and off Credit: Alamy
Irish Independent
19-06-2025
- Irish Independent
Inside the luxurious ‘once-in-a-generation' Killiney home that's on sale for €10m, and has Bono and Enya as neighbours
Mount Mapas House, a Georgian home with unobstructed views of the sea from Killiney Bay to Bray Head, has a drawing room, a sauna, multiple marble fireplaces and direct access to the beach below. It has been owned by many high-profile figures throughout its lifetime, including a prominent Dublin surgeon, top civil servants, a former manager of the Daily Irish Independent in the 1900s and the late Cormac O'Connell, one of Ireland's best-known pharmacists, who bought the property for £2.3m at auction in 1997. Neighbours past and present have included singer Van Morrison, ex-Formula One driver Eddie Irvine and Simple Minds star Jim Kerr. The six-bed, four-bath property has been described as 'one of the finest homes to come to market' this year, offering 'a once-in-a-generation opportunity to own a coastal Georgian masterpiece'. It has landscaped gardens spanning 1.25 acres and was one of the first houses built on the corner of Vico Road in the affluent area of Killiney, just beyond Dalkey, around 1800. The property has been described as a house with 'timeless grandeur' and as 'a fine example of an early 19th-century villa with a graceful ironwork veranda at first floor level that lends it a distinctly colonial elegance', with a terrace that once provided 'driveway space for carriages'. The house, which spans approximately 585 sq m, with 'stately architectural heritage and refined contemporary luxury' is private despite its place on one of Dublin's most sought-after roads. 'Mount Mapas House is not merely a residence – it is a legacy. A home that offers stately elegance, modern comfort, unmatched views, and a prestigious address,' the estate agent, Lisney Sotheby's, said. It has a reception hall, a drawing room, a dining room, sash windows, a split-level staircase with 'a magnificent cathedral-style skylight', a family bathroom with a sauna, a 'guest cloaks area' and a reception room. The main bedroom, along with a bay window and panoramic views, also has an intercom to the front door, a digital security alarm panel and a CCTV camera control panel. One en-suite bathroom has a jacuzzi bath, while another has 'a power steam shower room'. A conservatory overlooks 'the pond and bridge to the rear gardens and planting to the side and double folding double glazed French doors opening out to the patio area which looks directly out over the grounds and Killiney Bay'. There is also a dining terrace in the tiered gardens, which include direct private access to Killiney beach, and a 120m deep natural well with a pump and filter for drinking water and garden watering.
