Review: Cashel Palace Hotel

Why book Cashel Palace Hotel?

Because this gloriously detailed yet unstuffy reimagining of a handsome 300-year-old mansion has put a new pin in the map of luxury stays in Ireland.

Set the scene

This red-brick Palladian pile is right at the foot of the looming Rock of Cashel, one of Ireland’s most famous historic sites, with its Romanesque chapel, roofless cathedral and pencil-shaped round tower. The hotel’s woodsmoke-scented entrance hall (log fires are lit daily) is bookended by black Kilkenny marble mantelpieces and the wall-to-wall art includes big names of Irish art history—Lowrys to Laverys, Jack B Yeats to Orpens—mostly copies of the owners’ private collection, with a few originals hung strategically high out of reach among them.

The backstory

Cashel Palace’s owners, the Magnier family, built their fortune breeding thoroughbreds, including Epsom Derby-winning Galileo, at the nearby Coolmore Stud. They have revived the Grade I-listed building, which was one of the grandest examples of Palladian architecture when it was designed as a home for the archbishop in 1732. In the 20th century the palace was turned into a hotel. In its previous incarnation, Elizabeth Taylor and Ronald Regan were among the punters sipping Guinness in the lively cellar bar, and in the 1980s the building housed a Michelin-starred restaurant.

The rooms

There are 42 rooms and suites between the original main house, new Garden Wing and Gate Lodge. Those in the Garden Wing are spacious and pale-pastel-pretty, with the air of a French country house, while those in the original building range from cosy under the eaves to lofty ceilinged with four-posters. Heavily textured fabrics give an opulent feel and curtains are zhuzhed up with pelmets and tassels. Best of all are the rooms with views over the gardens to the enigmatic Rock of Cashel on the hilltop, atmospherically lit up at night. In the bathrooms there are fluffy robes, cool-white marble and delicious-smelling Memo Paris bath products (the luxury perfume house was co-founded by a Tipperary man and now has a store on rue Cambon in Paris opposite Chanel).

Food and drink

Breakfast and afternoon tea is taken in the cream-walled Queen Anne room, where Irish products (local jams, bacon and eggs) are the mainstay of the menu. For pre-dinner pints of Guinness, it’s got to be the cellar bar (Arthur Guinness used inheritance from his godfather—one of the archbishops who once lived here—to secure the lease of St James’s Gate brewery in Dublin, now famously home to Ireland’s de facto national drink). The Bishop’s Buttery, the hotel’s fine-dining offering, champions Tipperary produce in delicately plated dishes of Shepherd’s Store-cheese agnolotti and apples with caramel and Calvados.

The spa

This slick new addition is beautifully set at the edge of the restored gardens (look out for the centuries-old mulberry tree planted to mark Queen Anne’s coronation). Make sure to book a toxin-rinsing seaweed bath—outdoors and invigorating. Treatments use products by Valmont, organic stalwart Bamford and west of Ireland brand Voya.

The area

Tipperary’s pasture-rich Golden Vale is on the doorstep and many of the growers and artisanal producers offer tours and tastings. Try punchy Cashel Blue and mountain-style Shepherd’s Store at family-run Cashel Farmhouse Cheesemakers, followed by peaty single malt whiskies at Tipperary Boutique Distillery. Tour the Traas family’s apple farm (they grow 60 varieties) and pick up cider vinegar and fruit juices to take home, or even PYO strawberries in summer.

The service

For a plush country house that’s recently arrived on the scene, the staff feel like a well-oiled team that’s worked together for years. The welcome is as warm as the toasty log fires.

For families

Suites are designed to sleep families of one or two children. But in what feels like a very grown-up hotel, parents coming here with kids in tow may prefer to book into the Carriage House, a standalone set of rooms, including two that can be privately linked.

Eco effort

Bottled water comes from a well on site, food waste is turned into compost for the garden and the hotel works with local producers to reduce food miles as much as possible. The kitchen garden and greenhouse at Coolmore Stud supply much of the fruit and veg, while herbs, lettuce and micro greens are grown in a pesticide-free vertical farm nearby. And where many a five-star is let down by little plastic cartons of UHT milk in the in-room tea and coffee station, here fresh milk in a pretty jug is delivered to the room on request.

Accessibility

The lift goes to every floor, there’s accessible parking and accessible rooms in the Garden Wing and Carriage House.

Anything left to mention?

Not many hotels can count an equine concierge on their team. Here (for a tidy fee), Julie McGrath gives horse-mad guests behind-the-scenes access to the Ballydoyle training grounds and the world-famous Coolmore Stud.