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Cashel House Hotel & Gardens

Garden

Address:

Cashel
Connemara
Co Galway

About Cashel

Tel: +353 95 31001

Please mention ireland-guide.com when enquiring.

Cashel House Hotel & Gardens

Opening Months: February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
Opening Days:
Opening Hours: 10am-5pm
Admission Charge: €5 to charity

Appointment Only
Admission Charge

Georgina Campbell

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.

Best time of year to visit: May, June, July, August, September