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Irish Times
31-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Ireland's northern coast blends luxury with adventure
Ireland's northern coast is a rugged stretch of soaring cliffs, sandy beaches and dramatic scenery. A destination that is growing in popularity, it is increasingly being populated by luxury accommodation offerings that allow discerning visitors to get the most from a stay in this beautiful part of the world while enjoying the best in creature comforts. Donegal Boardwalk Resort is just one of these offerings. Its managing director, Ann-Louise Scott says the resort was designed to offer the ultimate in flexible escapes. 'It's the perfect location, whether you're seeking relaxation, reconnection or adventure,' she explains. 'It's a place where couples can unwind with sea views and sunsets, and families can celebrate milestones or spend quality time together in a relaxed setting.' She adds that it's equally suited to walking holidays, watersports getaways, or even wellness-focused stays that begin with yoga on the boardwalk by the beach. Scott explains that the vision for Donegal Boardwalk Resort was to create a destination that felt both elevated and deeply rooted in its surroundings; 'somewhere people could relax in comfort while enjoying the natural beauty of the Rosguill Peninsula'. The self-catering lodges offer a home-away-from-home experience for families and groups, with open-plan layouts that allow people to come together but with enough space for everyone to have their own privacy. These are ideal for reunions, family holidays and extended stays, Scott notes. READ MORE The luxury beachside suites, on the other hand, were created for guests seeking a more refined escape. 'With high-end interiors, private balconies or patios, and panoramic sea views, they provide a peaceful and luxurious retreat so they are perfect for couples or solo travellers looking to switch off in style. It offers the space and privacy of self-catering, combined with thoughtful amenities that go beyond what a typical hotel or B&B provides, including direct beach access, on-site dining, leisure facilities, and a truly immersive natural setting.' Later this year, a new boutique spa will open at the resort, featuring a thermal suite and a relaxation room that both overlook the beach, alongside four private treatment rooms. 'Whether you're indulging in a massage or simply unwinding with the Atlantic as your backdrop, it's the perfect setting to slow down and restore body and mind,' says Scott. The resort was designed to have everything on-site: two children's playgrounds, tennis and basketball courts, and a restaurant and bar. There is also the iconic boardwalk that leads to the unspoilt sands of Tramore beach. 'You can park the car and forget about it – everything is here to help you slow down and savour Donegal at your own pace,' says Scott. 'At its heart, the resort was developed to offer comfort without pretension, and luxury without losing the laid-back charm of Donegal.' The resort is ideally placed for anyone wanting to explore the rugged charm of Donegal's north coast. Guests are just minutes from the Atlantic Drive, and close to standout attractions such as Fanad Lighthouse, Glenveagh National Park, Doe Castle, and the majestic Errigal and Muckish Mountains. Walkers, cyclists, and day-trippers will find plenty of breathtaking routes and hidden spots to discover. Unsurprisingly, the area is hugely popular with golfers. Donegal Boardwalk Resort is one of the closest accommodations to St Patrick's Links at Rosapenna, which was ranked #49 in Golf Magazine's World Top 100 Courses 2023–24; Scott notes it is widely considered one of the most exciting modern links courses anywhere. Also nearby are the spectacular links at Dunfanaghy Golf Club and Portsalon Golf Club, offering top-tier coastal courses within easy reach. Royal Portrush Golf Club, its place in golf history guaranteed, is just a two-hour spin along the northern coast. For those who prefer a hotel stay, there are many luxury options in Donegal and along the northern coast. Lough Eske in southwest Donegal offers five-star accommodation with a renowned spa, while across the border in Fermanagh, Lough Erne Resort is also five star. Both offer unbridled luxury in opulent settings, while still being ideal bases from which to sample the Wild Atlantic Way. Luxury glamping is also holding steady in popularity, with more options springing up every year. Kintala Resort & Spa in Derry has six luxury lodges – each with its own private hot tub – and 10 glamping pods, while Lough Foyle glamping offers hot tubs, a sauna and plunge pools.
Irish Times
19-05-2025
- Irish Times
Escape from the city to a rural refuge in the magical, mystical Burren
As a transplant from the country, long living in Dublin , I find my mind wandering every few weeks across the Shannon and further westwards to the Atlantic coast. As often as possible my body gets to follow my imagination west to Sligo , Connemara or Clare to reset, prepping me for another stretch in the city. During one of these trips to the west last year I heard about Summerage, a 1930s Land Commission cottage on a high plateau in the Burren , in the throes of a transformation into a 21st century self-catering retreat. I followed Summerage's progress to completion on social media over the past few months, vicariously living my own dream to restore a house in this part of the world one day. After a seemingly never-ending winter, my horizon needed expanding and a booking at Summerage was just the ticket. My wife, son and dog have a similar hankering for the west, so off we set, and a couple of podcasts after hitting the road, the lights of Kinvara come into view. Tales of badly behaved Roman emperors are swapped on the car stereo for Declan O'Rourke's sublime The Stars over Kinvara. We roll down the windows to see actual stars, after an 11-day stretch of endless cloud cover. In Ballyvaughan we hang a left and follow the winding, mountain road through endless fields of rock, before navigating a final farm road to Summerage. Alighting from the car, we are enveloped in darkness. Kinvara's stars are no match for the theatre of the skies playing out above our heads; with craned necks we pick out constellations and galaxies we've never seen before. READ MORE The blackness of the night is swapped for the cosiness of the cottage interior. An A-rated makeover has swathed this refuge with underfloor heating and insulated walls, and warmth radiates from every corner. We light the stove and the rest of the night is spent on the couch with Manchán Magan's 32 Words for Field , a book about the etymology of the Irish language, that suits this setting perfectly. The idea that the Irish language is at least 1,000 years older than English is a fact we all need to be reminded of constantly. The wind howls outside and we will the weather to do its worst. Aoibheann McNamara bought this house on 32 acres of hazel woodland a few years ago, and has worked hard since to bring it back to life. We follow her instructions to wake up for sunrise. Out in the rocky fields in our pyjamas, we're rewarded with a Turner-like brightening in the clouds. McNamara's Mercedes estate soon draws a line across the landscape before pulling up before us in the driveway, which is surrounded by stone walls. When not restoring Summerage, McNamara runs ArdBia, the much-loved restaurant and community hub located in a stone building behind Galway's Spanish Arch. With her costume designer friend Triona Lillis, she also runs the Tweed Project, a clothing company based in Galway that uses exclusively Irish fabrics. All the beautiful yellow and red cushions and throws on the couches and beds in the house have been made by the label. She leads me through the hazel wood with her dog Puffy in tow to find the ruins of a famine village in a hidden dell. She explains that these limestone hills absorb heat in the summer, holding on to it throughout the colder months and warming the pastures for the cattle in a process known as winterage. Hence the reverse-naming of her house. Hundreds of oak trees have been planted here in the last year, along with an orchard of apple trees and a vegetable garden and green house to supply the restaurant in Galway. I'm in awe of all she has achieved. Summerage: 'It's gorgeous to stay somewhere where every single thing has been selected because it brings joy' Summerage: The windows all frame views of the Burren Summerage: Living area with wood-burning stove. Photograph: Shantanu Starick Summerage: Kitchen and dining area. Photograph: Shantanu Starick Summerage: All the yellow and red cushions and throws in the house were made by the Tweed Project. Photograph: Shantanu Starick Summerage: The property also has a vegetable garden and greenhouse. Photograph: Anita Murphy It would be very easy to never leave this house. It's set up so beautifully that six days could be spent here among all the books and bespoke furnishings, gazing out at the Burren, the views framed by every perfectly placed window. But a lunch booking at Michelin-starred Homestead Cottage near Doolin manages to lure us away temporarily from this refuge. Chef Robbie McCauley and his wife Sophie set up their restaurant in this charming 200-year-old cottage in 2023, using vegetables from their own garden and other ingredients sourced or foraged locally. We're seated by the wood-stove, and soon plates of home-baked sourdough and brown bread appear, followed by a parsnip velouté and a starter of local oysters in a champagne sabayon. A beetroot and St Tola cheese salad sets us up for the fish course with delicious halibut, and our carnivorous son is delighted when a beef dish appears soon after. The 'build it and they will come' maxim is very much in evidence here today with a full house of diners, all equally amazed as we are that food at this level is increasingly available in Ireland's hidden corners. Robbie McCauley, head chef of Michelin-starred Homestead Cottage in Doolin. Photograph: Brian Arthur The Michelin-starred Homestead Cottage in Doolin. Photograph: Brian Arthur We follow the steely grey coast road home through Fanore, where giant boulders have come to a stop between the clints and grikes of the limestone pavement above the sea. The Aran Islands are just about visible in the distance and then Black Head Lighthouse comes into view, awaiting a cameo in a Wes Anderson movie. The lights of O'Loclainn's pub in Ballyvaughan beckon, and as we squeeze through the front door we're immediately caught up in an Irish music session so oversubscribed that we never actually manage to cut through the throng to order the whiskey that this beautiful little bar is known for. Even without a drink, this is exactly the scene you always hope to experience when entering a pub in the west of Ireland. Back at Summerage, the clouds have descended and there's no repeat performance of the celestial display from the night before. We light all the candles in the cottage instead and crank up The Gloaming on the speaker: the ultimate soundtrack for this barren but intensely beautiful setting. Waking the next morning, no scroll through Instagram could compete with the view from our bedroom of stone walls, cattle on their warmed pasture and rock-covered hills. We arrange to meet Triona Lillis in nearby Ennistymon. Many of the soft furnishings in Summerage have been designed by Triona and Aoibheann's label the Tweed Project and I'm interested to hear more about their process. Triona leads me up to the studio in the eaves of her riverside home, explaining as she goes how all the linen they use comes from Wexford, and their tweed comes from Molly & Sons in Donegal and from the Kerry Woollen Mills. The colours and textures of the Burren are a huge influence, and we admire tassled grey blankets shot with metallic threads. Triona asks us to bring a suit back with us to Dublin: as it turns out, the Tweed Project make all of the suits Tommy Tiernan wears on his RTÉ chatshow. I decide to visit their showroom the next time I'm in Galway. Open-air Wild Atlantic Seaweed Baths, Doolin Before leaving Ennistymon, we call in to the wonderful Market House Food Hall. Triona tells me that half of Clare keep their winter colds at bay with Moss Boss Tonic and we stock up with a few bottles of this elixir made with sea moss in Ennis. More seaweed awaits back at Doolin. Wild Atlantic Seaweed Baths operates an open air spa on the foreshore near the pier, looking out at Crab Island with the Cliffs of Moher in the distance. A cloud of steam rises from a line of oak barrels filled to the brim with seaweed and piping hot water. A rope of festoon lights is strung across the site. We spend a very happy hour soaking in the iodine-rich sea water, taking in the panorama of the cliffs. Who needs Bali? We continue the day's ocean theme by driving over the hills to Linnane's Lobster Bar at New Quay for dinner. Seamus Heaney advised visiting these parts in September or October in his poem Postscript, but the wind and the light are still working off each other at the Flaggy Shore in early spring. Linnane's doesn't feature in Heaney's poem, but the seafood being served up here is just as breathtaking as the wild ocean that we look out at from our table. Plates of Flaggy Shore oysters soon appear, and we feel it would be a shame not to try the lobster, given the location. Linnane's Lobster Bar in New Quay, Co Clare The tiny fishing village of New Quay in the Burren It's our last morning in Summerage and I repeat the ritual of lighting the stove and the candles before breakfast. We're envious that our house in Dublin can't compete in the cosy stakes, and we make mental notes about how to bring extra warmth into our own habitat. We eat our breakfast from orange-flecked plates; a local potter was commissioned to design a bespoke set of tableware to match the colour scheme of the house. It's gorgeous to stay somewhere where every single thing, from the bone-handled cutlery to the J Hill's Standard crystal glasses, has been selected because it brings joy. The walls are dotted with framed photographs of British film-maker Derek Jarman's famous tar-black house in Dungeness on the Kent coast. McNamara made a pilgrimage there last year to take these images, and draw inspiration for her own house in a similarly austere landscape. It's very hard to leave, but Summerage is now available for short-term stays and I'm sure we'll be back. [ Mysterious sweathouses were used widely in Ireland until late 19th century. Now sauna culture is making a comeback Opens in new window ] Poulnabrone Dolmen has presided over the Burren for more than 5,000 years from its perch on one of the highest spots in the area. It's just up the road from Summerage and we drop by to pay our respects before heading for home. This is arguably Ireland's most famous dolmen and for me, the unofficial symbol of the Burren. With all the turmoil we seem to be living through at the moment, it's grounding to spend some time with an ancient structure that has weathered many the storm, and survived. Fergal McCarthy was a guest of Summerage, see . For help planning your own trip to the Burren, see
Daily Mail
10-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Dad turns 1970s private jet into holiday home - and it still has the original cockpit
An Airbnb glamping pod promises to give guests checking in the flight of the they won't even leave the ground. A 1970s private jet has been lovingly converted - after seven months of toil and an outlay of £90,000 - into a cosy self-catering let, where you can explore the cockpit at leisure. The vintage 1970s Hawker - now known as Alaya Airways - is in Dolgellau in Gwynedd, Wales and has only been available to rent for less than a month but is already being snapped up by tourists seeking a mile-high stay that never leaves the ground. Its owner Tamir Ali, 38, snapped up the vintage plane in December 2023 and decided to set about turning it into a two-bed room stay, with guests paying £170 a night. Intrigued by its history as the staff plane of an oil company, and in use for much of the 70s and 80s, he's strived to preserve as many original features as possible, while also ensuring all the things you'd expect from a self-catering stay are there. There's a kitchen with all mod cons, bathroom with shower and even space to enjoy a glass of fizz in a dedicated outdoor area - and its pet friendly to boot. With a 70 per cent occupancy rate already, the property looks set to be booked up for the summer and is described as the perfect stay for families. Adding in a double bedroom, via a cosy cabin, plus wood floors and modern electrics ensures the plane is a comfy retreat. The 1970s private jet, once the property of an oil company, still has its original cockpit in tact for guests checking in at the glamping pod in Dolgellau in Gwynedd, Wales Tamir, who's based in Leicester, said: 'It's awesome - when people walk in they say it's much bigger than it seems on the outside. 'It's almost like you're in a normal home. It's a unique experience, not many people get to sit in the cockpit of a 70's private jet.' The plane enthusiast describes the plane when he bought it, around 35 years after it was retired, as 'worse for wear' but with plenty of potential: 'There was lots of mould and moss inside - but I immediately envisioned what I wanted it to be.' He said building the plane back up and giving it new life has made for some interesting encounters, saying: 'I've always worked with eccentric people - people who deal with the weird and wonderful. 'I know a chap in Essex, who said he had something that was up my street.' The comfy-looking seats remain a cream leather, while the Airbnb owner has given the cabin at the back a modern look, using a bright yellow Ikea daybed and a trendy black matt sink unit. Last month, a Dorset developer's four year battle to turn a tiny garage into an Airbnb was thwarted for a third time. Peter Mullins has tried and failed to get permission to redevelop his 19 foot-wide garage in Poole, Dorset, after buying the property for £600,000 in 2021. A planning application in 2021 to add two storeys to the garage to create a pair of semi-detached houses was dismissed at appeal. Then in 2022, a conversion and extension to create two flats was also refused. And in his latest attempt to redevelop the property, Mr Mullins had sought to demolish the garage and turn it into a dwelling to create a £1million Airbnb to 'make his money back' on the expensive garage. Owner Tamir Ali said the property took him seven months to transform from a 'worse for wear' plane to a glamping pod Plans submitted to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council show the home was set to be in a newly-added pitched roof and would include a double bedroom, a single bedroom, and a dining and living room. The development would take place just a street away from the iconic Sandbanks beach, where famous residents have included Harry Redknapp, chef Rick Stein and Liam Gallagher. But the application was rejected by planners earlier this month, who said the proposed windows would be just 1.65m from a home on Panorama Road - where houses sell for an average of £3,922,500, according to Rightmove.
