Bellinter House near Navan in Co Meath is to be turned into a 40-bed boutique hotel by a trio of Dublin bar and restaurant owners who paid €3 million for it earlier this year. Edel Morgan reports

Jay Bourke, Eoin Foyle and John Reynolds have lodged a planning application to Meath County Council to convert the 18th century Palladian mansion on 14 acres into a hotel with a spa, cinema and restaurant.

However, Jay Bourke is at pains to point out it is "a restoration not a development" of the protected building.

He says: "We are not trying to redesign, but restore. Anything we do will be in keeping with the house."

He notes that other ventures he has been involved in - like the Market bar on Fade Street in Dublin's city centre - have been lauded as "commercial yet sensitive restorations".

Bellinter House is in good condition and, according to Jay Bourke, "was very well looked after" by its former owners, the nuns of the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion. Bellinter is one of the last country houses to have been designed by Richard Castle, the architect responsible for the great houses of Carton, Russborough, Powerscourt and Leinster House.

It has its own salmon fishing on the adjoining river Boyne and overlooks the grounds of the Royal Tara Golf Club.

It is close to the Killeen estate which is being turned into an exclusive golf and country club by property developers Liam Maye and Joe O'Reilly of Castlethorn.

Bellinter will be run on similar lines to Babbington House, a fashionable country club in Somerset, England.

Bellinter House was originally part of an 800-acre estate which was sold in 1954 for £36,000.