THE RED COTTAGE HAS ALSO RE- OPENED
You’ve got to get creative if you’re a young professional looking to move back to Sligo and earn a living.
For newly- weds Karen and Tomás Kelly, opening up Karen’s old family B& B on the Donegal Road just on the outskirts of Sligo was the obvious solution.
“People are always happy, it’s very rewarding,” says Karen outside the Red Cottage Guesthouse and Stables.
The couple believe that with the success and growing popularity of the Wild Atlantic Way, the timing is good to re- enter the hospitality offering in Sligo.
They started renovating the property in March 2016 and finished in October, a month before their wedding.
“I grew up here, my parents ran a B& B here for almost twenty years,” Karen told The Sligo Champion.
“I loved the hospitality industry growing up in it. We decided we wanted to go down the same path.
“I studied Hospitality Management and when I left college I worked in the Radisson Hotel.
Next came a stint working in Dublin, followed by a move to Sweden to study a Masters in Marketing and Brand Management.
After that Karen returned to Dublin to work with hotel marketing agency NetAffinity before deciding to move back to Sligo with Tomás.
Tomás, who is also from a family business background in Ballintrillick in North Sligo, works in finance and looks after the financial aspect of running the business.
“My family are Thomas Kelly Haulage Ltd so we both see ourselves as being self- employed down the road,” he said.
Tomás did a Bachelor’s degree in Business Studies in IT Sligo, spent a few years working in Japan before returning to Dublin and working in finance and banking there.
After they met in Dublin both realised that they wanted to return to Sligo and carve out a future on home territory.
Karen moved back to Sligo first, securing a job as Digital Marketing Manager with B& B Ireland at their headquarters in Ballyshannon, while Tomás moved back a year and half later.
The new business is entirely run by the couple who are helped out by the original B& B operator, Karen’s Mum Marion O’Connor.
“She loves greeting people, obviously she’s very experienced. She loves the industry anyway and is happy that we’re back in it,” smiles Karen.
The décor is contemporary but cosy: “I’m so glad you said that, that’s what we wanted.
“Because the house has so much history ( Yeats is reputed to have stayed there) we wanted to keep that historic aspect of it, and of course the iconic red roof,” said Karen.
“It’s nice to come back to Sligo because we didn’t really see ourselves in Dublin,” said Karen.
“That was the thing for us, how do we get back to Sligo?” added Tomás. “This was an opportunity. There’s not a lot of industry. There is the Wild Atlantic Way and now the Sligo Food Trail, tourists are coming in,” he said.
“We have surfing as well – it’s a great time for us to open,” he added.
In the short period since they opened, Red Cottage has been busy, especially over the St Patrick’s weekend.
“We were full for the weekend. We had Irish people, Brazilians, Scottish, and tonight we have Maltese people, tomorrow line- dancers so what is good is that we’re getting a lot of group bookings from wedding and hen parties,” said Karen.
“The whole B& B experience is staying with an Irish family and that’s never really gone away.
“In terms of the international guests they really want to experience that,” she said.