Hotel Dunloe Castle * * * * *

Leisure Facilities

Hotel Dunloe Castle offers guests a wide range of leisure activities on-site:

- 25m indoor heated swimming pool
- Sauna
- Exercise room
- Children's outdoor playground
- Children's indoor playroom
- 2 indoor tennis courts
- Haflinger Ponies for gentle trekking around the grounds (subject to 

  availability)
- Complimentary Fishing on the River Laune
- Complimentary daily shuttle service into Killarney town

Golf
The hotel is fortunate to be surrounded by some of the finest golf courses in Ireland. The Gap of Dunloe Golf range and course are situated opposite the hotel. In addition to that there are a number of other top class courses nearby: Beaufort, Killarney Golf and Fishing Club, Dooks Golf Club, Killorglin golf course, Waterville, Tralee Golf Club and Dingle Golf Club.

Other Activities
- Inch Strand and Rossbeigh Beach are a short drive from the hotel.
- Boating is available locally on Lough Lein.
- Walking, cycling and mountaineering are popular local pastimes. One of the popular walk areas is the Dingle way.

Dining
The Oak Room, the main restaurant of the hotel, overlooks the gardens and the beautiful Gap of Dunloe. This restaurant is open for breakfast and evening meals. Guests can choose from both table d'hôte or à-la-carte and can sample our wines bought straight from the vineyard.
The Café Restaurant is open daily for casual dining and offers guest a wide selection of light dishes.
After dinner you can enjoy an Irish whiskey or a glass of stout in our intimate bar that overlooks our fountain.

  Weddings at Hotel Dunloe Castle

Although we have helped many couples plan their wedding reception, yours is bound to be unique. Let us assure you we are good listeners and it will be our pleasure to explore your particular preferences with you and share with you the wealth of experience we've gained over the years.

The romantic setting of 64 acres of parkland with its own ruined castle makes the Hotel Dunloe Castle is an ideal venue for your special day. The warm intimate atmosphere will wrap itself around your guests from the moment they enter the foyer. The Upper Lounge, ideally suited to cocktail receptions, has an open-air terrace with spectacular views of the Gap of Dunloe. From here you can access the Park Restaurant easily and up to 180 guests can be seated here for your wedding reception. This room has its own bar and the dance floor is a focal point. After dinner guests can stroll through the gardens or enjoy a quiet drink on the veranda.

The conference centre comprises - The Beaufort Suite, The Arbutus Suite, and 4 smaller meeting rooms (Elm, Oak, Laune, Magnolia). All meeting rooms have windows and overlook either the Gap of Dunloe or the surrounding gardens and as a result are equipped with blackout blinds.

The Conference Centre is connected to the hotel by a covered walkway and there are approximately 100 car park spaces adjacent to it.

The Beaufort Suite has a capacity for 250 theatre style or 190 classroom style and has hosted many international conferences, car and product launches and seminars. The hotel has a wide range of Conference and Meeting Facilities available. The Maple Coffee Lounge is ideal for morning coffee or afternoon tea breaks. The surrounding 64 acres of parkland are ideal for commando games and a wide range of team-building activities.

The Arbutus Suite will accommodate up to 90 theatre style while our 4 syndicate rooms, Oak, Laune, Magnolia and Elm, will each cater for 10 - 35.

The gardens at Hotel Dunloe Castle have a very interesting history. They contain an extensive and interesting collection of plants, several of which are rarely, if at all, found elsewhere in Ireland. It may surprise some to learn that the majority of the planted trees and shrubs date only to the 1920s and 1930 when the property was in the ownership of Mr. Howard Harrington, an American with a love of plants. Much of the plant interest at Hotel Dunloe Castle is the result of Harrington’s enthusiasm and foresight. Unpon his return to the USA the estate was purchased by Miss Agnes Petit who kept the gardens maintained and made some modest additions. In 1960, upon her death, the estate was purchased by Killarney Hotels Ltd.which was owned by Dr. Hans Liebherr whose love of plants and trees enabled the gardens to enter a new and exciting period.

He demolished the old house and build the new hotel complex but ensured the work should in no way threaten the old gardens. Dr. Liebherr sought the advise of one of Germany’s most respected horticulturists, Count Bernadotte, whose own garden in Mainau is world famous. He brought Dr. Gerd Krussmann, Director of Dortmund Botanic Gardens to make an inventory of the plants. Encouraged by the number of rare and unusual trees and shrubs flourishing in the gardens, Krussmann advised Dr. Liebherr to continue planting and to increase the representation of interesting plants.

You can walk around the world in an hour in the Castle Gardens. The voyage starts with the Chilean fir trees and leads to to Australian gums, South African lilies, New Zealand cabbage trees, New Zealand cherries, Japanese maples, North American dogwoods, South American fuchias and back to a Killarney strawberry tree. The gardens surrounding the shell of Mac Thomas' medieval Keep have a dramatic setting looking towards the mountains girdled by the Ring of Kerry. Camellias, magnolias, roses and rhododendrons flourish in the sheltered grounds together with rare specimens like the aromatic-leaved ‘headache’tree and the Chinese swamp cypress. These are catalogued in a booklet by plantsman and broadcaster, Sir Roy Lancaster, who supervises new plantings.

The Castle appears to have been built by an Anglo-Norman baron, Meyler de Bermingham, in 1207 although according to the Annals of Innisfallen, the original castle was built by Mac Thomas in about 1213. Whatever its true origins may have been, there can be no doubting its strategic importance at the time. It seems to have been originally constructured with a dual purpose – commanding the passage across either river and the pass from the mountains through the Gap of which it must have formed the key. So it served for either offence or defense. The 13th and 14th centuries were particularly troubled in this part of Ireland with various factions fighting among themselves while at the same time fending off the territorial ambitions of the Anglo-Normans. Several times the castle was besieged and at least once destroyed only to be rebuilt. However when it was attacked by the forces of Ludlow in the 17th century it was left in a ruinous state. Now the castle is an empty shell with dense clinging ivy and nesting jackdaws and has a wild and romantic air which somehow echoes the darker chapters of its past.