Carton House Hotel - Maynooth

Maynooth, Co Kildare, Ireland
www.cartonhouse.com
Review by Patricia and Dennis Cleveland-Peck

Carton House Hotel in Maynooth, just outside Dublin, is an extremely imposing building, as befits the original home of the Dukes of Leinster. Now, after a €120 million refurbishment and the addition of a new wing, it has been transformed into a 167-bedroom luxury hotel and golf club.   

Our welcome is as warm as the building is grand and we are soon ensconced in an elegant and spacious bedroom in the historic part of the house. It has a huge comfortable bed and all the usual top-end communication and entertainment facilities. The adjacent bathroom contains a stand-alone bath on a plinth which is inset with lights which change colour – also a shower, two washbasins, plentiful towels, bath coats and lavish toiletries.

Before dinner, the charming and enthusiastic guest relations supervisor, Kelly Scales give us a history tour’. Carton served as a location for the TV series, The Aristocrats adapted from Stella Tillyard’s book about the eighteenth century Lennox sisters, one of whom, Emily,  married the Duke and lived here with their 19 children while another,  Louisa lived at nearby Castletown House.

We admire the Gold Saloon, said to be one of the loveliest rooms in Ireland with its lavish plasterwork ceiling depicting The Courtship of the Gods. One door is flanked by an attractive pillared organ while a portrait by Angelica Kauffmann is found above the other. Like all the long enfilade of public rooms, this opens out onto the gardens making it the perfect wedding venue.

Kelly also shows us the Chinese bedroom, created by Lady Emily which may (or may not) have been used by Queen Victoria when she visited Carton. It contains a disguised door leading to a primitive shower for which servants, concealed behind a shutter, doused the bather with buckets of water. The dining room has another magnificent stucco ceiling but on a less elevated level, we see a dummy door hiding  a cupboard containing chamber pots used in eighteenth century  by male guests too lazy to leave the room!

We appreciate the way in which as many of the historic elements as possible have been retained, some used innovatively. The huge circular ceiling decoration, removed when a modern lift was installed, now sits on its side adorning the wall of the spacious reception area. Minimalist interiors here exist comfortably alongside glittering chandeliers and all the furnishings and colour schemes manage to chime sympathetically with eighteenth century taste and create an  uncluttered and elegant look. 

In the 1100 acre park are two impeccably maintained international  golf courses – not quite Capability Brown landscapes but with a beauty of their own and importantly, relevance for the twenty first century. We take a stroll around the gardens  - there is also clay pigeon shooting, cycling, fishing, 4x4 off-roading  and of course golf, to enjoy outdoors.  I on the other hand opt for a blissful massage treatment in the luxurious  new Aveda Spa.

Dinner in the Linden Restaurant is good with thoughtfully created dished. I opt to start with  cream white bean and smoked ham soup which is pleasant if a little bland  - and  far too big a bowlful! A strange complaint - but had I eaten it all it would have spoiled my delicious grilled fillet of sea bream with crisy calamar, lime polenta cake,  baby leeks with beetroot glaze and white wine cream. Dennis on the other hand could have done with more of his seared king scallop with cauliflower puree and five -spice pork belly served with pickled ginger sauce but pronounces his   duo of seafood with buttered fennel, baby potatoes and balsamic salsa ‘extremely good’.  Neither of us could manage a pudding but instead we finished with one of the best Irish coffees we’d ever been served.

And so back though those glorious state rooms and up to bed where we slept peracfully.

The choice at breakfast is excellent. The full Irish of course, with black and white pudding, sausages, bacon, mushrooms, tomato and eggs scrambled or fried - but also a lavish buffet spread of fruits, yoghurts, cereals etc all fresh and temptingly displayed.

Carton House Hotel claims to have achieved the tricky task of  having combined historic grandeur with modern luxury ‘and come out smiling’.      

They have, and we did.

Prices vary but there are many offers – 1 night’s  dinner bed and breakfast can be as little as €90.00 or 2  nights from €115.00