Before summer disappears, why not treat yourself to a final break in an unusual holiday home, from a gate lodge to a castle or even a private island? Eoin Lyons reports
Who hasn't imagined life in the Big House? You might be able to manage it, if only for a few days, by staying in one of the numerous castles and manor houses that are available to rent. You'll need deep pockets for some of them - however much you'd like to stay in Luggala House, in Co Wicklow, you'll have to hand over about €30,000 to use its staff and facilities, including the seven bedrooms, for a week - but other properties, including cottages on the Luggala estate, are more modestly priced.
"People ask for something that's attractive, different and a reasonable distance from where they live," says John Colclough of Adams & Butler, a Dublin-based company that specialises in luxury breaks.
"The thing we get asked about most often are four-poster beds, and what people comment about most after their stay is how comfortable the beds are - we use 400-thread-count sheets and down-filled mattress covers. It's an advantage to be beside a good restaurant. When we let the Luggala cottages, Americans love to go to the Roundwood Inn - suddenly there's John Hurt or Daniel Day-Lewis sitting in a corner."
It could be a good time to snap up a late-summer rental. "What's happening in London has really affected business: we've just had 40 Americans cancel houses for the Ryder Cup because they feel it's too dangerous to travel," says Colclough. "On the other hand, over the past two weeks we've had three times as many inquiries from Irish people as usual."
GATE LODGES
Luggala's two-bedroom gate lodge costs €500; both this and the main house are available through Adams & Butler's Havens & Hideaways website (www.irishgems. com, 01-6607975). Another of its properties is Mersheen Lodge, on the Hook Peninsula near New Ross, in Co Wexford. It has a fairly traditional interior, with one double and two single bedrooms. It is the gate lodge to the Dunbrody Estate, which means that the Dunbrody Country House hotel and spa (www.dunbrodyhouse. com) are a few minutes' walk away. That has obvious advantages, but nearby there's also a nice beach, the Hook lighthouse, Duncannon Fort and Maritime Museum and the JFK Arboretum. The house is €450 a week at the beginning of September.
With the same company are the Manor Cottages in Co Wicklow: four rustically decorated two-bedroom houses in the grounds of an early 19th-century house, plus a one-bedroom gate lodge, lying on 40 acres of woodland between the Wicklow Mountains and the Blessington lakes. There are built-in barbecues, so pray for an Indian summer. Each house is €550 a week.
Another organisation to go to is the Landmark Trust (www.irishlandmark.com, 01-6704733), which lets some of the important buildings it looks after to holidaymakers. Among them is Salterbridge, a one-bedroom house 10km (six miles) from Lismore, in Co Waterford, and a mile from the charming village of Cappoquin. It is available from August 28th to 31st (a midweek let) for €272. This is one for architecture buffs: a classically proportioned pavilion gate lodge from 1849, it includes an unusual octagonal garden room. Landmark Trust properties are always very comfortably fitted out, with antique furniture and good linen.
CASTLES
There are more modestly scaled (and priced) castles than Luggala. Clomantagh Castle, in Co Kilkenny, a Landmark Trust building that's available for part of the first weekend in September, is a perfect place to bring a group of friends. It sleeps 10 and costs €969 for the weekend. Ballybur Castle, an Adams & Butler property also in Co Kilkenny, is a five-storey 16th-century keep with exposed stone walls and suitably Gothic furniture. It has been carefully restored while managing to fit in those modern comforts we can't do without, such as electricity. It sleeps eight adults for €1,800 a week.
ISLAND GETAWAY
Inish Beg (www.inishbeg.com, 028-21745) is a private island estate in west Co Cork, near Skibbereen and Baltimore, that Paul and Georgina Keane bought almost 10 years ago. They returned the 19th-century house at the centre of the island back to glory and developed 42 acres of woodland, farmland and gardens around eight self-catering cottages created by the architect Tony Cohu, mostly from the ruins of old cottages and outbuildings. A few of the cottages nestle around a courtyard; the others are well spaced out. They have one, two or three bedrooms and cost €660-€1,390 a week until September 8th, then €490-€950. One of the new buildings is the Boathouse (€2,300 a week until September 8th, then €1,590), on the River Ilen, in which the island sits; another is the spacious three-bedroom timber-clad Foresters House (€1,690 a week until September 8th, then €1,190). Inish Beg could be good for families, as it has an indoor pool and a gym.