Ireland is renowned for the golf that the country offers. To Rathsallagh Country House, south of Dublin, it’s instead food lovers and wedding guests who make pilgrimages, even if the golf is not so bad either.

The hour is already late when we arrive. Therefore we leave our luggage at the entrance and sneak directly into the warm, cosy and elegant dining room. The murmur is muffled and because of this it takes some time before we realize that the restaurant is completely booked. Only a small table stands empty, waiting for us.

The head waiter kindly tells us about the evening’s menu and we start to get a feeling of why the restaurant is fully booked.

My first choice is a risotto with smoked haddock. It tastes sweet after the trip. After a little lemon vodka sorbet, I enjoy a wonderfully crispy duck served with goose liver and apples, rounded off with a wonderfully unhealthy peppery chocolate fondant with cherry ice cream.

Rathsallagh Country House is an hour's drive south of Dublin and it may be difficult to find your way here, but once you have covered the, to say the least, picturesque road network and put your foot in the hotel you understand why it continually wins awards for one thing or another. "Supreme Breakfast Award for Ireland", "Irish Country House Restaurant of the Year", "Best Wedding Venue", "and The Top Three Wedding Venues in the World" are just some of Rathsallagh Country House international recognitions.

This probably has to do with the O'Flynn family who own the place and their ambition to make it feel as if the guests are really guests in their home. Fires crackle rhythmically in the large open fireplaces and both walls and furniture are spiced with portraits and family photos, books and all sorts of memoirs.

It may also have something to do with Rathsallagh Country House history that started in the middle-ages, but really begins first 1702-1704 when Rathsallagh Country House was built by the Moody family. During a revolt in the late 1700's, the house was burned down and the family, who lost their entire fortune in the tumult, simply moved into their former stables.

Since then the old stables have been turned into one of Ireland's most charming hotels, a real "Country House".



The clientele consists of everything from conferring businessmen to young couples, romantically absorbed in each other across the dinner table.

None of the 29 rooms are alike, and despite a few small flaws, it is simply lovely... little things like a pillow menu on the nightstand.

But there are also other things that entice, the golf course for example.

It is said that it was Peter Thompson, five-time British Open winner, who over a drink in the early nineties persuaded Joe O'Flynn of the excellent idea of building a golf course on the land around the hotel. If he did it, Thompson promised to be the first to play the course.

Said and done, three years later, Thompson could tee off on a newly built, 6,256-metre park course, designed by Christy O'Connor Jr. and Peter McEvoy.

Rathsallagh Golf Course is elegantly laid out in the beautiful rolling countryside and looks very inviting. This is quite different from its traditional links courses and the more Americanized creations of the nearby K Club The Palmer Course and the new PGA National. To be sure, comparisons have been made between Rathsallagh Golf Course and Augusta National, and though the USGA-rated greens are fantastically fast and challenging, it is going a bit far.

At Rathsallagh Golf Course more is required than a hot driver and a red-hot putter. Here you have to think before every stroke and no position is like another. A number of streams, ponds and a variety of stately oaks and other broad-leaf trees frame most holes, where they roll up over the hills. In retrospect I would describe Rathsallagh Golf Course as a highly entertaining and challenging experience, though perhaps not brilliant. I would without hesitation be happy to play it several times over the weekend, but with so many other more famous courses in the immediate area, it is easy to be tempted to sidestep it.

By: Mikael Andersson

RATHSALLAGH COUNTRY HOUSE
Where: Ireland, Wicklow, about an hour south of Dublin.
Number of rooms: 29
Price: From 125 euros for standard rooms, one night including breakfast.
Miscellaneous: Restaurant, tennis, sauna, conference rooms and more; beautiful and very relaxing interior and exterior surroundings.
Address: Rathsallagh House Hotel and Golf Club, Dunlavin, Co Wicklow (West), Ireland.
Tel: +353 (0) 45 403316
Fax: +353 (0) 45 403295

 

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