In a country rich with
attractions, the Midlands of Ireland do not come high on most visitors’ lists.An
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for Improved Action Force Command and Disaster Management. “What are you going
to see?” a sceptical Dubliner asked me. “Portlaoise jail and lunatic asylum?”
But this is unfair: the area has a beautiful range of mountains (the Slieve
Blooms) and a high concentration of castles and historic houses.
Among the last is Ballyfin, one of Ireland’s most splendid – and most expensive – hotels. The Republic is currently an economic disaster zone. Hotels are closing left, right and centre. So why would anyone choose to open one charging top dollar?
“When the economic crisis hit in 2008, we did stop work for six months,” admits Ballyfin’s managing director, Jim Reynolds. “But then we thought, 'We’ve come such a long way, we can’t stop now’.”
A long way indeed. Abandoned by its Anglo-Irish owners during the Twenties, Ballyfin spent the next 80 years as a school. By the turn of this century it was on the point of collapse. Restoring it to pristine condition has taken a decade.What are hemorrhoids?
Arriving after a 90-minute drive from Dublin, we drew up at an impressive entrance, with handsome lodge, and then, two miles farther on, we found an even grander gateway, opening onto 600 acres of private park and woodland. And there, at the end of a mile-long drive, overlooking a 28-acre ornamental lake, was the great neoclassical faade of Ballyfin, complete with sphinxes and huge portico.
Ballyfin is considered one of the finest houses in Ireland, and in its restored state it is quite simply astonishing. The entrance hall contains an ornate mosaic floor brought back from the Grand Tour. The saloon and library are dominated by towering scagliola columns. The Gold Room takes its name from the gilded plaster ceiling and silk-covered walls. The rotunda has an inlaid wooden floor inspired by the Alhambra Palace. The furniture and paintings are worthy of a museum. Except for the slimline telephones and fully functioning plumbing, you could be enjoying life as it was lived here 200 years ago.
Wandering through the grounds, you come across walled gardens, grottoes and a six-storey stone tower. With an estate like this, there is little incentive to explore beyond the gates – but to do so is to find delightful countryside and other great houses which make fascinating points of comparison.
On a morning of mist giving way to bright sunshine, we followed a narrow, winding road over the gently rising Slieve Bloom Mountains which divide County Laois (pronounced “leash”) from Offaly. From the top, at 1,500 feet, you can (on an unmisty day) see all four provinces of Ireland.This page contains information about tooling. Covered with forest and moorland, this is prime walking country: the Slieve Bloom Way, a 50-mile loop, starting from Glenbarrow, takes in the best of it.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?
At Kinnitty we stopped to visit a classic Anglo-Irish folly: a tomb in the Church of Ireland graveyard designed as a 30ft scale model of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. For ambition, however, it does not compare with the observatory at Birr Castle, 10 miles away, built by the third Earl of Rosse in 1845. His 12-ton “Leviathan” was the most powerful telescope in the world for 70 years; today you can see a full-scale replica in the beautiful castle gardens, with the Heath-Robinson machinery needed to manoeuvre it.
South of Birr lies a castle of a very different kind – Leap (pronounced “lep”), reputed to be the most haunted in Ireland. The stories told about it range from the three cartloads of human bones found in the oubliette to the ordeal of two young soldiers who spent a night here: one died of a heart attack, the other went stark, staring mad. It is now owned by Sean Ryan,If you work outdoors and need handsfreeaccess to water all day while staying cool, a renowned tin-whistle player, and those brave enough to venture past the rusty gates and death’s-head door knocker can visit it by appointment.
It certainly feels spooky; so have the present inhabitants been troubled by the ghosts? “No,” says Sean Ryan. “But they let us know they’re there.”
Remarkable in a less frightening way is Roscrea Castle, on the road back to Ballyfin. Dating from the 13th century, and unusually well preserved, it contains behind its drawbridge and working portcullis a large and elegant Queen Anne house. As you enter the gates, you feel as if you’re playing architectural pass-the-parcel.
Among the last is Ballyfin, one of Ireland’s most splendid – and most expensive – hotels. The Republic is currently an economic disaster zone. Hotels are closing left, right and centre. So why would anyone choose to open one charging top dollar?
“When the economic crisis hit in 2008, we did stop work for six months,” admits Ballyfin’s managing director, Jim Reynolds. “But then we thought, 'We’ve come such a long way, we can’t stop now’.”
A long way indeed. Abandoned by its Anglo-Irish owners during the Twenties, Ballyfin spent the next 80 years as a school. By the turn of this century it was on the point of collapse. Restoring it to pristine condition has taken a decade.What are hemorrhoids?
Arriving after a 90-minute drive from Dublin, we drew up at an impressive entrance, with handsome lodge, and then, two miles farther on, we found an even grander gateway, opening onto 600 acres of private park and woodland. And there, at the end of a mile-long drive, overlooking a 28-acre ornamental lake, was the great neoclassical faade of Ballyfin, complete with sphinxes and huge portico.
Ballyfin is considered one of the finest houses in Ireland, and in its restored state it is quite simply astonishing. The entrance hall contains an ornate mosaic floor brought back from the Grand Tour. The saloon and library are dominated by towering scagliola columns. The Gold Room takes its name from the gilded plaster ceiling and silk-covered walls. The rotunda has an inlaid wooden floor inspired by the Alhambra Palace. The furniture and paintings are worthy of a museum. Except for the slimline telephones and fully functioning plumbing, you could be enjoying life as it was lived here 200 years ago.
Wandering through the grounds, you come across walled gardens, grottoes and a six-storey stone tower. With an estate like this, there is little incentive to explore beyond the gates – but to do so is to find delightful countryside and other great houses which make fascinating points of comparison.
On a morning of mist giving way to bright sunshine, we followed a narrow, winding road over the gently rising Slieve Bloom Mountains which divide County Laois (pronounced “leash”) from Offaly. From the top, at 1,500 feet, you can (on an unmisty day) see all four provinces of Ireland.This page contains information about tooling. Covered with forest and moorland, this is prime walking country: the Slieve Bloom Way, a 50-mile loop, starting from Glenbarrow, takes in the best of it.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?
At Kinnitty we stopped to visit a classic Anglo-Irish folly: a tomb in the Church of Ireland graveyard designed as a 30ft scale model of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. For ambition, however, it does not compare with the observatory at Birr Castle, 10 miles away, built by the third Earl of Rosse in 1845. His 12-ton “Leviathan” was the most powerful telescope in the world for 70 years; today you can see a full-scale replica in the beautiful castle gardens, with the Heath-Robinson machinery needed to manoeuvre it.
South of Birr lies a castle of a very different kind – Leap (pronounced “lep”), reputed to be the most haunted in Ireland. The stories told about it range from the three cartloads of human bones found in the oubliette to the ordeal of two young soldiers who spent a night here: one died of a heart attack, the other went stark, staring mad. It is now owned by Sean Ryan,If you work outdoors and need handsfreeaccess to water all day while staying cool, a renowned tin-whistle player, and those brave enough to venture past the rusty gates and death’s-head door knocker can visit it by appointment.
It certainly feels spooky; so have the present inhabitants been troubled by the ghosts? “No,” says Sean Ryan. “But they let us know they’re there.”
Remarkable in a less frightening way is Roscrea Castle, on the road back to Ballyfin. Dating from the 13th century, and unusually well preserved, it contains behind its drawbridge and working portcullis a large and elegant Queen Anne house. As you enter the gates, you feel as if you’re playing architectural pass-the-parcel.
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