This wonderful small 18th century "dolls' house", surrounded
by woods and on the edge of the Slieve Bloom Mountains National Park, is run as a rustic
country house hotel. It has a large drawing room with tall south facing windows, a study
and a dining room. The 10 spacious bedrooms all have private bath. The owner's family live
on the premises and provide cooking and housekeeping services when it is let on an
exclusive basis. The house was restored by the Irish Georgian Society in the 1970s, and it
has all the hallmarks of Georgian Society elegance - tons of style, potraits of
astonishingly ugly 18th century gentlemen, peeling paint, lots of highly readable books
and well worn upholstery.
When taken with the restored cottages in the yard it will provide very attractive and
comfortable accommodation for up to 30 people. The area is a wonderful base for
touring, halfway between Shannon and Dublin, both of which are about 90 minutes.
Kilkenny, Clonmacnoise, Athlone, and Birr are a few of the local places well worth
exoploring. The mountains themselves offer a huge area to explore on foot, bicycle
or horseback.
