Business Traveller (Middle East)
PAR EXCELLENCE
Luxury and warmth combine at this country manor with a Ryder Cup- worthy golf course and Michelin- starred dining
Golf and gorgeous greenery at Ireland’s Adare Manor
Adare Manor is on a roll. Last July it was confirmed that the luxury Limerick hotel would stage the 2026 Ryder Cup at its new Tom Fazio-designed golf course. Then, in October, its fine-dining restaurant, the Oak Room, was awarded a Michelin star less than two years after it opened. Add to that the UK and Ireland’s only La Mer spa and everything from a plush cinema to expansive grounds to explore, and it makes the range of what the recently renovated property has to offer pretty formidable – both indoors and outdoors.
Which helps when you’re in the west of Ireland. We visited in the midst of typical August summer weather. Greeted by pelting rain on the half-hour drive from Shannon airport, by the time we had been welcomed warmly by top-hatted staff at the entrance gate, checked in and taken a window-side seat in the drawing room for some light lunch, dazzling sun had broken out across the formal gardens and 340 hectares of immaculate grounds. (I’ll come back to the greenkeeping later – it turned out to provide an unexpected highlight of our visit.)
Built on the banks of the River Maigue in the mid-19th century and a hotel since 1988, Adare Manor has long been among the country’s top five-star addresses.
Still, it is its multimillion-euro full-scale refurbishment by Limerick tycoon JP McManus – who bought the hotel in
2015 and is a co-owner of Sandy Lane in Barbados – that has cemented its status as one of Ireland’s most illustrious properties. Reopened in November 2017, its renovation – which took almost two years and was led by architectural firm Reardon Smith, previously behind the restoration of London’s Savoy – included the addition of a new 42-room West Wing that has been designed to match seamlessly with the neo-gothic limestone manor house, which emerges imposingly in the distance when you first wind your way along the driveway through the parkland. A 350-capacity ballroom has also been added.
GRAND DESIGNS
As well as restoring the façade of the old manor – which was built by the second Earl of Dunraven as a calendar house, with 365 windows, 52 chimneys, seven stone pillars and four towers – the works have made the most of its elaborate original features. In the Great Hall reception, the aroma of a crackling fire drifts up into its vaulted arches and ornate Minstrels’ Gallery, while upstairs, the 40-metrelong Gallery, with its high arched ceiling, stained-glass windows and intricate 17th-century wood carvings, is a lovely space in which to enjoy a leisurely breakfast.
Reopened in 2017, its multimillion-euro renovation included the addition of a new West Wing