Co. Galway CASHEL

Cashel House Hotel

Zetland Country House

Cashel House Hotel

The McEvilly family’s lovely country house hotel is set in beautiful gardens with its own little beach, and is renowned for its peacefulness, a high level of comfort and thoughtful service.

The house is very relaxing, with open fires, comfortable chintzy furniture, and a proper bar with a conservatory area overlooking the gardens to the side of the house. There’s an old church just half a mile away - and wedding blessings can be arranged at the hotel.

This wedding venues a magical location for a smallish wedding - 50 to 100 guests allows exclusive use of the hotel with the reception in the Dining Room, whereas small weddings for up to 25 people may be held in the Drawing Room.

Weekend weddings in July and August must take all of the rooms for 2 nights, but that should be no hardship for guests who are able to allow the time to slow down and enjoy this wonderful area - there is so much to do and see, and the hotel can arrange a special programme for individuals if required.

Accommodation includes thirteen suites - some especially comfortable ground floor suites are suitable for less able guests - and, however short your stay, you must allow time to make the most of the Cashel House breakfast, which is as good a start to the day as anyone could wish for.

Zetland Country House

Originally built as a sporting lodge in the early 19th century, Zetland House is on an elevated site, with views over Cashel Bay, and is now a charming and hospitable family-run hotel, with a light and airy atmosphere and an elegance bordering on luxury, in both its spacious antique-furnished public areas and the accommodation.

This wedding venues lovely gardens surround the house, all round, it makes a delightfully romantic venue; the Prendergast family will help with all the details of your day, from helicopters to florists, to music and your wedding cake, and they also work with a local wedding co-ordinator. There’s an old church just 5 minutes’ walk away, overlooking the sea, and wedding blessings can be arranged at the hotel (which is very photogenic) too.

The wedding party must take over the entire house, which creates a house party atmosphere, and weekend weddings must take the house for two days - which should be a pleasure, as it makes a very pleasant base and there is so much to do in the area. (Two night special offers are available, including one dinner).

The reception is held in the light and airy dining room, which has sweeping views over Cashel Bay, and this is a hotel well known for good food - so you may look forward to menus which include the delicious seafood and Connemara lamb the area is renowned for, and fresh produce grown in the hotel garden.  

Cashel House Hotel & Gardens

Standing at the head of Cashel Bay, Dermot and Kay McEvilly’s gracious property has been run an an hotel since 1968 and comfort abounds here, even luxury, yet it’s tempered by common sense, a love of gardening and the genuine sense of hospitality that ensures each guest will benefit as much as possible from their stay.

The award-winning gardens, which run down to their own little private beach, contribute greatly to the atmosphere, and the accommodation includes especially comfortable ground floor garden suites, which are also suitable for less able guests (wheelchair accessible, but no special grab rails etc in bathrooms). Relaxed hospitality combined with professionalism have earned an international reputation for this outstanding hotel and its qualities are perhaps best seen in details - log fires that burn throughout the year, day rooms furnished with antiques and filled with fresh flowers from the garden, rooms that are individually decorated with many thoughtful touches. Service is impeccable, and the superb breakfasts for which they are renowned will set you up for the most demanding schedule of garden visits.

The hotel is covered in a soft cloak of climbing plants - jasmine, ivy, clematis and roses, with some planting of pelargonium and antirrhinum into the rocky base, and a long flower bed in front of the house contains a colourful display of viola, canna lilies, antirrhinum, phlox and chocolate cosmos.

The gardens, which are informal and quietly secluded, are open to the public for most of the year and they are a delight, with their paths and small walks covered in ‘mind your own business’ (soleirolia soleirollii) and edged with moss covered rocks - an enchanting setting for exquisite flowering shrubs, many of them imported from Tibet, including azaleas, camellias, eucryphia, old-fashioned and modern roses, and rare and beautiful magnolias.

A fine Beech Walk leads up to the herb and vegetable gardens, and the walled garden, now known as The Secret Garden, was an orchard until 1919 when the apple trees were felled and replaced with rare trees and shrubs from all over the world; the Irish Tree Society has recently compiled a list of all the rare trees in the gardens.

The gardens are over 200 years old and the McEvillys see them as a work in progress - a beautiful New Garden was started several years ago and, in recognition of Kay’s sister Mary’s garden in Belgium, there are mainly herbaceous plants there.

AA CASHEL

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