The sun filtered through the branches electrifying thousands of bluebells carpeting the forest floor at Ballyfin. On the edge of the nearby lake, a swan sat on her nest shielding her newly hatched signets from prying eyes.
If the best was saved until the last, it was difficult to argue with the scene in front of me.
I was roaming the grounds of Ballyfin Demesne, one of Ireland’s most luxurious hotels and the final stop on a road trip that had begun a few days earlier in County Kerry. I had threaded a route along the coast through West Cork then inland to County Tipperary and County Laois. My chosen path was plotted thanks to Relais & Châteaux’s “Routes du Bonheur”, one of 152 curated routes linking individual Relais & Châteaux properties in countries across five continents.
Each map is adaptable, can follow a theme, and takes the task of planning away with distances and suggestions of things to see along the way. There are seven Relais & Châteaux properties dotted around Ireland and my trip took me to four, tracing a trail through some of Ireland’s best and lesser-known landscapes from the untamed wilds of Kerry to the lush fields of County Laois and offering a diverse snapshot of Ireland’s scenic splendour and culinary highs.
Hit The Road
My first stop was the Park Hotel in the small town of Kenmare in County Kerry. Its Gaelic name “neidin”, which translates as nest, hints at its heritage charm. Set on the edge of town surrounded by gardens sweeping down to Kenmare Bay there are also views of the mist-snagged Caha Mountains beyond. This Victorian era building has been a fixture of Irish hospitality for decades, but its new owners, Bryan and Tara Meehan, have been ushering in a new era. Now its walls are hung with the Meehan’s gallery-worthy collection of contemporary art, which has imbued the hotel with a modern sensibility but without sacrificing any of the historic vibes.
Dinner at Landline Restaurant is a smart affair with sophisticated takes on local classics
Dinner at the Landline Restaurant with its glamorous booths, views and walls adorned with works by Irish-born artist, Sean Scully, is a smart affair with sophisticated takes on classics like locally landed Dover Sole and Kerry Lamb. The hotel’s Samas Spa was something of a trailblazer when it first opened and is about to get a toney makeover, but an early morning swim followed by a loll in the outdoor thermal pool looking out over 1,000 shades of green felt difficult to improve on.
West Cork Wanders
Later that morning, a drive across the county border between Kerry and Cork along the serpentine road over the Caha Pass revealed jaw-slackening views of the Beara and Iveragh peninsulas and the Atlantic Ocean. As you travel further east the landscape softens and the coastline fractures into a mosaic of cliffs, hidden coves and small offshore islands edged by lively coastal towns like Glengarriff, Bantry and Ballydehob, the latter attracting Irish A-listers like Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal.
Liss Ard Estate is a hidden away manor house buried in ancient woodland.
Set a short drive outside the market town of Skibbereen, my next pit stop, Liss Ard Estate, is a hidden away manor house buried in ancient woodland. With rooms scattered around the main house and a smaller house overlooking a lake, there is a touch of the fairytale about it. The restaurant showcases the bounty of West Cork, which is home to some of Ireland’s finest artisan producers, while days can be spent swimming and paddleboarding on the lake or striking out beyond the estate’s walls.
Art is also a draw here. The estate’s former Swiss owners commissioned world-renowned American artist, James Turrell, to create The Sky Garden hidden in the grounds with inspiration drawn from the ancient passage graves of Neolithic Ireland and the Egyptian Pyramids. You enter through a dark tunnel before emerging into a grass covered elliptical crater. At the centre is a stone, bed-like plinth where you lie looking up at the sky framed by the sides of the crater. If you are lucky, as I was, it’s best experienced on a clear night, when the oval-shaped heavens are studded with twinkling stars. As I lay in the silent darkness, a shooting star flashed into view – a fleeting moment of celestial magic.
American artist James Turrell created The Sky Garden, hidden in the grounds at Liss Ard Estate
Back on the road, my itinerary took me inland from Cork through rolling, velvety green countryside to one of Ireland’s agricultural and horse breeding heartlands, County Tipperary. As you approach Cashel, the Rock of Cashel dominates the landscape sitting atop a limestone outcrop looking down over town. With its origins in medieval times, this stunning archaeological site has a collection of ecclesiastical buildings dating from different periods and was once the seat of the High Kings of Ireland and an important centre of Christianity from the 12th century.
Time Travel
At its foot is the Cashel Palace, my next bed for the night, originally built in 1732 as a palace for the Protestant archbishops of Ireland. This Palladian-style mansion reopened in 2022 as one of Ireland’s most bougie hotels and is owned by one of Ireland’s richest businessmen and thoroughbred horse breeder, John Magnier and family. Some of the rooms have views of the Rock and interiors channel an equestrian theme, while a secret gate at the end of the gardens gives guests direct access to the Bishop’s Walk up to the Rock of Cashel.
The entrance hall at Cashel Palace
Cashel Palace must also be one of the only hotels in the world with an Equine Concierge. The Magnier’s nearby Coolmore Stud is one of the world’s preeminent breeding outfits and guests have the added privilege of opting for a tour. Even if you know nothing about horses, it’s a well spent and eye-opening afternoon. The hotel’s self-styled Equine Concierge, Ann Mai, expertly engages both the horse-mad and the uninitiated into the fascinating, not to mention lucrative world of thoroughbred breeding. Stallions prance through the impeccably manicured stable yards with their handlers, with five-star levels of care.
Back at the hotel, dinner under the atmospheric vaults of its one-Michelin-starred The Bishop’s Buttery restaurant in the basement is a highlight of local ingredients like Castletownbere crab combined with well-judged cheffy artistry. There’s also a slick spa with an indoor/outdoor pool and treatments using Bamford products.
Stately Slumbers
The Saloon at Ballyfin Demesne
Deeper into Ireland’s green heart, when you pull up at the imposing gates of Ballyfin Demesne and drive down its sweeping avenue, you know you have arrived somewhere out of the ordinary. Arguably the country’s most exclusive place to stay, it’s one of the stateliest of stately Irish homes.
George and Amal Clooney and Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have all checked in and it’s not difficult to see why. Surrounded by 640 acres reserved solely for guests, privacy is guaranteed. Each of the 20 bedrooms are done up in an opulent country-house style with four-poster beds and no detail left to chance. There’s also an enchanting Gardener’s Cottage that sleeps two on the edge of the walled garden. It all feels more house of an exceptionally well-heeled friend, than hotel.
Sitting at the foot of the Slieve Bloom mountains, Ballyfin was originally built for the aristocratic Anglo-Irish, Wellesley-Pole family and later remodelled by the Coote family into one of the country’s finest Regency mansions. Before it became a hotel, one of its most recent iterations was as a boarding school run by a religious order, which a few of the staff attended as pupils. On the daily history tour of the house, our guide, Ben, regales us with the history of the building and anecdotes about his time as a student there.
The only time you really see other guests is at mealtimes. Dinner is served in the grand surroundings of The State Dining Room, a fitting backdrop for the food, which has a newly minted Michelin star. Many of the ingredients come from the estate’s walled gardens. Earlier that afternoon I strolled through them with head gardener, Kayleigh Keenan, who is on a joint mission with Ballyfin’s Executive Head Chef, Richard Picard-Edwards, to grow as much produce on site as is possible, year-round. The Irish coffee is a must order at the end of the meal, prepared with pyrotechnic theatrics in front of you from a silver service trolley.
Sitting at the foot of the Slieve Bloom mountains, Ballyfin was originally built for the aristocratic Anglo-Irish, Wellesley-Pole family.
The other pleasure of Ballyfin is the great outdoors, and activities are very much in the country-pursuits vein like clay pigeon shooting, horse riding, archery and coarse fishing on the lake. I spent an afternoon freewheeling around the estate on one of its bicycles before settling by the lake in a shady spot. The scene was picture book perfect with Ballyfin and a cerulean blue sky reflected on the lake’s glassily calm expanse. A peaceful final stop for my road trip to end.
Lead image credit: Liss Ard Estate
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