Ballyfin Demesne

The gates at Ballyfin open on a drive that passes a lake, a folly tower and acres of parkland before the house comes into view, a long neoclassical front of grey limestone facing the Slieve Bloom mountains. Ballyfin Demesne, in County Laois in the Irish midlands, has been a hotel of 20 rooms since 2011, and for most of the century before that it was a boarding school.

History

Sir Charles Coote, the ninth baronet, commissioned the house in 1820 from Richard Morrison and his son William Vitruvius Morrison, the leading country-house architects in Ireland of the period, and it was finished around 1826. The Cootes kept Ballyfin until the 1920s, when the family sold up, and from 1930 to 2001 the Patrician Brothers ran it as a boarding school, with dormitories in the state rooms. Fred Krehbiel, the chairman of the Chicago electronics company Molex, and his Irish-born wife Kay bought the estate in 2002. Their restoration took nine years, employing craftsmen on the plasterwork, scagliola, parquet and the Turner conservatory, and the hotel opened in May 2011 with 15 rooms, later increased to 20. Ballyfin is a member of Relais & Châteaux.

Architecture and design

The house is widely regarded as the finest Regency mansion in Ireland. Its state rooms run along the garden front: the Saloon with its coffered ceiling, the Gold Drawing Room, the Library with its mahogany cases, the Rotunda under a glazed dome and the Whispering Room. The conservatory, a curved iron and glass structure by Richard Turner, the Dublin ironfounder who built the Palm House at Kew, was added in 1855. The entrance hall has a mosaic floor brought from Rome. The demesne of 614 acres holds a 28-acre lake, a walled garden, a cascade and grotto, a tower folly built in 1860 and woodland walks laid out in the nineteenth century.

Rooms and suites

The 20 bedrooms are spread between the main house, where the largest rooms, such as the Sir Charles Coote and Lady Caroline Coote rooms, keep original fireplaces and views over the lake, and the Gardener's Cottage within the walled garden, which has its own kitchen and garden. Each room is different and furnished with antiques and paintings collected for the house. Younger children are not taken, and the house is adult in feel.

Dining

Dinner is served in the State Dining Room, with the table laid under the portraits, from a menu drawn on the walled garden's produce and Irish meat and fish; guests gather first for drinks in the Saloon. Breakfast is in the Dining Room or the conservatory, and afternoon tea in the Gold Drawing Room. The cellar is kept beneath the house.

Wellness

The former basement holds an indoor pool, a steam room and a treatment room. The estate offers walks, cycling on the demesne, boating on the lake, fishing, archery, clay shooting, horse-drawn carriage rides and a costume wardrobe from which guests may dress for dinner, a Ballyfin custom.

Weddings and events

Ballyfin takes weddings only on an exclusive-use basis, with the whole house and its 20 rooms reserved by the party; ceremonies are held in the Saloon, the conservatory or in the gardens and dinner in the State Dining Room or a marquee. Private use is also sold for family gatherings and company retreats, with meetings in the Library or the Whispering Room.

Location

Ballyfin lies 7 kilometres from Mountrath and about 20 kilometres from Portlaoise, off the M7 between Dublin and Limerick. Dublin Airport is around an hour and a half by car, Shannon slightly less; the hotel arranges transfers and helicopters can land on the lawn. The Slieve Bloom mountains rise behind the demesne, and Emo Court, Birr Castle and the Rock of Dunamase are within easy reach. The house is probably the quietest luxury hotel in Ireland of its rank, since nothing but the estate is in view from any window.