GLIN CASTLE, GLIN, CO. LIMERICK.
LOCATION: South West Ireland, 30 miles from Limerick CityFACILITIES: Tennis • Woodland Walks • Clay Pigeon Shooting (by arrangement) • Archery (by arrangement) • Sailing (available nearby) • Hunting (available nearby)
NEARBY GOLF COURSES: Ballybunion's famous two courses are less than 20 miles away from Glin Castle, while Killarney, Dooks, Tralee, Lahinch and Adare (all fantastic golf courses and a mixture of links and parkland), are all within an hour and a half drive.
NEARBY ATTRACTIONS: The famous Ring of Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula, the Burren, Cliffs of Moher, Bunratty Castle and Folk Park can all be toured, viewed and explored from your base in Glin Castle. The surrounding towns include Limerick (30 miles), Listowel (17 miles), Cork (60 miles) and Killarney (50 miles). All are excellent shopping venues, while each town has an individual charm, character and beauty associated with them.
ROOMS: 11 luxurious individually furnished & decorated old style bedrooms. Four more rooms are due to be added and will be ready for the 1999 season.
Home for 800 years to the Fitzgerald family, Glin Castle stands proudly in the middle of its 500 acre wooded demesne on the banks of the river Shannon.
The present Glin Castle, which succeeds the medieval ruin in the village of Glin, was built in the late 18th Century with entertaining in mind. The entrance hall with a screen of Corinthian pillars has a superb neo-classical plaster ceiling and the enfilade of reception rooms are filled with a unique collection of Irish 18th century mahogany furniture. Family portraits and Irish pictures line the walls, and the library bookcase has a secret door leading to the hall and the very rare flying staircase.
After a stroll in the grounds, the sitting room with a crackling wood fire makes an ideal cosy gathering place for drinks before dinner. The Dining Room is filled with baronial oak furniture and a gallery of former Knights including a number of notable eccentrics such as "the Knight of the Women" and "the Big Knight". Upstairs there are individual sets of bedrooms, bathrooms and dressing rooms. Wall-to-wall carpets are scattered with rugs, and chaise lounges stand at the end of comforting, plump, chintz-covered beds. Pictures and blue and white porcelain plates adorn the walls. The bedrooms at the back of the castle overlook the garden, while those at the front have a view of the river. Formal gardens surround the castle and magnolia campbelli and sophora tetraptera as well as camellias and drifts of daffodils make a splendid Spring garden, while other magnificent trees and shrubs come into their own in the Summer.
The castle's cuisine is good Irish country house cooking using vegetables from the walled garden including new potatoes, asparagus, sea-kale, spinach, celeriac, artichokes, broad beans, mange-touts, etc., as well as fruit and berries of all kinds. Flowers for the castle's flower vases are grown in cutting borders and hens are kept for free-range eggs and bees for honey. Fresh fish, poultry, beef and lamb come from the excellent local producers, while any specific culinary requests can be catered for by pre-arrangements with the cook.