Hotels and Leisure: A luxury hotel and spa complex at the historic Dunboyne Castle is now open to the public, writes Jack Fagan
One of Ireland's great houses, Dunboyne Castle, on the Dublin-Meath border has just opened to the public after being converted into a luxurious hotel and spa. It is easily the most stylish and impressive hotel to have been launched in the Dublin area in recent years.
The four-star property has 145 bedrooms, a range of restaurants, elegant reception rooms, a choice of bars, conference centre, meeting rooms, a dedicated exhibition complex and a superb spa with 18 treatment rooms. The facilities cover an area of 14,000sq m (150,700sq ft) and are set among 21 acres of ancient woodlands and flowing lawns on the edge of Dunboyne village.
Seamus Ross's Menolly Group, by far the largest housebuilder in the Dublin area, has invested around €40 million in what will be the flagship hotel in the newly formed Fylan Collection.
Next September it will open a top-of-the-range boutique hotel, Dylan, in Eastmoreland Place, off Baggot Street in Dublin 2, and in the spring of 2007 another boutique hotel, Mount Hybla, will be ready to receive guests at Farmleigh Wood in Castleknock, Dublin 15.
Menolly has every reason to be happy with the immediate response to the opening of the Dunboyne hotel.
Meath County Council has chosen it as the venue next Sunday for a gala function to bestow the freedom of County Meath on former GAA football manager Sean Boylan.
Although the hotel will have only been open for a matter of days, it will have the task of catering for 500 guests. Dunboyne Castle is also emerging as an important wedding venue with all Fridays and Saturdays from June to September, 2007, already booked for mainly weddings but also some conferences.
The spa business is also thriving and, with a leisure facility of more than 1,300sq m (14,000sq ft) and 16 full-time therapists available, the bookings suggest that this will be an important part of the attraction. The offerings will range from Balneotherapy, a water treatment with 252 jets massaging the body, to Rasul, a mind-blowing experience involving a decadent mud chamber, steam room and shower in one.
The Dunboyne project will be judged by many - not least the architectural purists - on the difficult task Martin Henihan of Henry J Lyons Architects had in sympathetically integrating such a large modern building with a classical 19th century house and landscape.
Henihan's solution was to keep the new building lower in height and at a discreet distance from the castle.
This allowed the handsome three-storey over basement castle to maintain its dominant position in the overall scheme. The sensitive approach is also reflected in the subtle curving of the bedroom block away from the castle and around the mature woodland.
The rooms in the new hotel have been designed with high ceilings and extensive glazed walls and terraces to take advantage of the views of the surrounding park and woodland.
The hotel interiors are finished to a high standard with marble and granite cladding, exotic hardwood, deep pile carpets and rich fabrics and furnishings. A wide range of hotel bedrooms and suites will be available, most of them with balconies and all of them with generous proportions.
Menolly's handling of the mid 18th century mansion has been particularly impressive. The two main reception rooms have been beautifully restored and furnished. The one on the ground floor, originally the ballroom and later used as a chapel by an order of nuns, will now function as a private diningroom to seat about 35 people while the one directly overhead will also be used for private receptions.
Both rooms have noble proportions and feature some of the most sophisticated rococo plasterwork still surviving. The former ballroom has an outstanding marble fireplace and shouldered doorcases of considerable beauty.
The elaborate plasterwork is also to be found at the top of a stunning flight of stairs which leads to the bridal suite complete with four poster bed. The overall results are most impressive. Menolly now has a gem of castle and the makings of a phenomenal business.
