MANACHÁN MAGANstays at Butler House in Kilkenny
I LOVE SECRETS, hidden treasures, anything that comes with a nod and a wink, the inside track, which is how I came to stay at Butler House, the dower house of Kilkenny Castle, during Kilkenny Arts Festival. I decided at the last minute to attend the festival, so found that all the hotels were full. Then someone happened to mention Butler House.
It’s not a hotel, and not really a guest house, either, but a range of rooms and studios in an elegant Georgian house that was originally an integral part of the Kilkenny Castle estate – and is still linked directly to it by formal gardens and the stables and coach houses that are home to Kilkenny Design Centre and various artists’ studios.
On a busy weekend it provides a wonderful bolt-hole right at the heart of the maelstrom. While tourists wander through the yew- and box-lined paths of Butler House’s secluded gardens, and sashay around the galleries in the downstairs reception rooms, it’s nice to be able to skip behind the residents-only rope and ascend the elegant staircase, garlanded with stunning 18th-century plasterwork, to the seclusion of one’s room – one of only 13, on the top two floors of the building.
The house was built by the earls of Ormonde, who also built the castle, stables and coach houses at the rear, but, like the castle, it fell into total disrepair in the last century, until Kilkenny Design acquired it in the early 1970s and faithfully refurbished it. It is now in the possession of Kilkenny Civic Trust, which looks after both it and its important collection of Irish art on behalf of the citizens of the city. Thus, rather than enriching some lardy British property speculator, the cost of one’s accommodation goes towards maintaining the magnificent plastered ceilings and marble fireplaces in this pristine example of Georgian town-house architecture.
That said, this is a residential house at heart, not a hotel, so there are really only five or six bedrooms that could be termed sumptuous; the rest are relatively modest. The secret is to go for one of the rooms or suites overlooking the gardens, preferably the ones with the enormous bay windows bulging precociously towards the castle.
Being a solo traveller, I was stuck in a bright though somewhat cramped room in the front of the house, which was calmly decorated in pale oaten colours. There’s not much an interior designer can do to such a room, but the original sash windows and slight coving of the ceiling were enough for me.
The designer’s vision was far more in evidence in the bathroom, a sleek, chrome-spangled statement with an amoeba-shaped bath and cockpit-glassed shower capsule. The visual references and aesthetic in-jokes alluded to by everything from the 1920s soap tray to the gladiatorial lavatory brush were enough to make one yearn for the naive pink sink-and-bidet set of Mrs O’Nosey’s BB down the road. I spotted retro cosmopolitanism, art-deco sardonic 1960s, Boho artisan and sci-fi chic.
It’s probably unfair of me to dwell too much on the smallness of the room: as a solo traveller it’s something one gets used to, being led to the flounced-up broom cupboard. It’s the cross one bears for not shackling oneself to another human being, for not being a breeder of yet more unwanted earth-tramping, resource-devouring humanity.
No doubt it’s also unfair to point out the nondescript nature of Butler House’s corridors, which come as a shock after the magnificence of the sweeping staircase. The corridors are victims of fire regulations which decree that little more than a fire alarm, fire extinguisher and fire action safety plan may be displayed – it was the safety plan that revealed the layout of the hotel and precisely how small my room was.
For me the most fun part of Butler House is skipping across the glorious gardens to breakfast in the loft of the castle stables that now house Kilkenny Design Centre. Morning surliness is banished by the untrammelled profusion of sweet pea, wild roses, rosemary and lavender that cascades out at you from the herbaceous borders. The restaurant is closed to the public until 10am, so one gets to savour one’s granola, smoked trout, muffins and vegetable quiche in peace.
Overall, Butler House makes an ideal location from which to explore Kilkenny. At €100 for the room it was more than I usually spend, but was well worth it as the perfect cocoon in which to savour Kilkenny Arts Festival.
WhereButler House, 16 Patrick Street, Kilkenny, 056-7722828, butler.ie.
WhatA guest house in a superb Georgian building in the heart of Kilkenny, overlooking the castle.
Rooms12 standard and superior rooms, one suite.
Best rates€60pp low season; single occupancy €80 low season; both with breakfast and parking.
Restaurants and barsNone. Breakfast served in Kilkenny Design Centre, in the refurbished stables of Kilkenny Castle at the bottom of the garden.
AccessWheelchair access to downstairs reception rooms, chairlift access to bedrooms (suitable for guests with slight disabilities).
AmenitiesCar parking, Wi-Fi.
Child-friendlinessChildren welcome.