The History of Carrig Country
House
Carrig Country House Hotel & Restaurant
is situated in one of the most beautiful hideaways in the world
on the shores
of Lake Caragh. This AA five-diamond property is set in four
acres of beautiful gardens featuring 950 species of mature tress
and plants and which sweep down to its own private jetty on the
lake. Guests enjoy spectacular views across still waters to the
wildness of the MacGillycuddy Reeks.
Originally built c. 1850 as a hunting lodge, Carrig House’s
previous owners include Lady Cuffe, Lord Brockett Snr, Sir Aubrey
Metcalf and Senator Arthur Rose Vincent before it was bought
by Frank & Mary Slattery in 1996. Former owners of Slatt’s
restaurant in Tralee, Frank & Mary set about renovating and
meticulously decorating the beautiful Victorian residence.
HISTORIC PLACES
By Mary Leland, Irish Examiner
A Bat, a sickle moon, a promising
splash, and all else is silence and stillness at nightfall at
Caragh Lake. I chose the easy Killarney route to Killorglin from
Macroom; the road leads easily onto the landscape that seems
to gather the traveller into a circle of embracing hills. As
evening wanes the colours darken and the hills become mountains,
the stream beside the road becomes a river, the uplands slanting
away are washed with fading, golden light
The directions lead to a bog road (there is even a bog village
here), which drops down to a fertile valley, dense with trees.
Just when I think I’ll sell my soul for a chance to see
the lake, glimpsed here and there through the greenery, the gateway
to Carrig House beckons; beyond it lie the mountains, the moon.
The bat, The splashing trout and, at last, Caragh Lake.
Mangerton looms black in the far distance and Carrauntuohill
is higher than the cloud over the McGillycuddy Reeks. Where the
last light of the evening glows to the west/ there is a salty
reek from Mount Brandon and the headlands of Dingle. From my
bedroom window, behind me. Lamplight spreads its gleam over the
lawn and garden paths; candles flicker in the bays of the dining
room, where my white-draped table awaits. From the sitting room,
with its bookshelves and armchairs and table-lamps, comes the
inviting and familiar tang of turf blazing in the wide hearth.
I have to make my way back from the lakeshore, before dark,
if I don’t
want them to send out search parties. In fact, this dusky enchantment is not
isolated. The house is at my back, and lively with preparations for the evening
meals in the restaurant.
On Caragh Lake, a shrubbery is enough to hide the world. The paths wind through
the garden and end at the slip, or at a gap in the trees, or in the water.
The oak woods grow almost from the waterline.
The old houses here began, like Carrig house itself, as a shooting boxes or
hunting lodges, retreats from the busy Victorian world of the landed gentry,
the military
or the merchant classes. It was to this house that Senator Arthur Vincent came
when he remarried after the death of his first wife. She was the daughter of
the American, Bowers Bourne, who had given the Vincents a wedding present of
Muckross house in Killarney.
When Vincent left. He and his parents-in law gave the Muckross Estate to the
Irish nation as a memorial tribute in 1932. Carrig house had already had a
succession of owners since it was built in the 1850’s; after Vincent it was sold to
Sir Aubrey Metcalf, one of the last Ministers of the British administration to
India, who lived here for about eight years. He was a cousin of The McGillacuddy’s.
On the walls of Carrig House, these family faces smile from the tennis parties
and boating rips of 50 Years ago.
After them came Lord Brocket, who owned several other notable houses, including
Carton and Cashel palace. With this embarrassment of two homes to choose from,
Lord Brocket only visited Carrig a few times a year, installing a caretaker
instead to keep the place in good order, until it was sold in 1983 to a German
family.
Frank, and his wife, Mary Slattery, and their children, came here in 1996,
leaving their restaurant business in Tralee to realise a dream they had dept
alive for
twelve years.
Carrig house is a Victorian residence, extended by different owners. The dining
room has been extended into the garden by enlarging a conservatory, so that
the timber sash windows look directly onto the lake, which glistens between
the trees.
William Morris wallpaper, elegant curtaining, glittering glassware, and cutlery
on white napery, with simple garden flowers everywhere, give this area a style,
which is both fresh and sophisticated. Run as a comfortable country house,
Carrig has a wonderful kitchen; it also welcomes non - residents. When I drag
myself
back from the lakeside, I sit down to black and white, seafood pudding on Carrageen
moss with saffron vinaigrette, followed by a sweet potato soup, seared scallops
with spicy couscous and green tomato salsa. I won’t even mention the
desserts. But I must mention the music of Aine Nic Gabhann, on harp and then
piano. Her
melodies lie on the night air like a romantic charm.
All of the sixteen bedrooms are different in style. Some are spacious enough
to rank as a suite, others cottage style and quaint, but all sharing an atmosphere
of easy comfort with big, blanketed beds, (from Eadies Mills on the Killarney
road, rugged carpets, efficient bath rooms, couches, cushions and attractive
upholstery.
The bedrooms look out onto the four acres of gardens and onto
the lake with its rampart of mountains. In the morning light,
this is breath taking. I drink it in from my window-table with
my orange juice, waiting for my bacon and mushrooms, while
buttering my treacle bread (just one of the breads made in the kitchen
each morning) and planning my drive home. Frank and Mary guide
me to their favourite places in the hills; for them the business
they run at Carrig House is a labour of love, and their knowledgeable
advice is like a bowl of brilliant apples from the old orchard,
another indication of the care they take to get it right
This glen of the Caragh river is just one of the idyllic settings
which Kerry offers to rival Killarney. As I circumnavigate
Glencar, I leave Dooks golf-links between the seas and Mount
Seefin and
all its neighbouring peaks. I also leave for another day what
remains, in Glenbeigh, of Winn’s Folly, the fortress-like
mansion designed in 1867 by Edward William Godwin for the Hon
Rowland Winn. Winn was an eccentric of one kind. Godwin, who
eloped with Ellen Terry of another and Winn’s son, the
fifth Lord Headley, added to local legend by adopting the Muslim
faith with such ardour that he became president of the British
Muslim Society.
The folly, officially named Glenbeigh Towers, was burned down
in 1922. I turn instead for Blackstone Bridge, staying in second
gear, intimidated by the fringe of passive sheep along the
roadside. A blue boat tied on the shore, the grass grows up
into heather
and bracken and down into reeds, and the native houses are
those with their gable-ends to the view. Lickeen Wood emerges
from
the oak thickets, Lough Acoose fill the hallows with its steel-grey
waters. Mountain ash, hollies and furze radiate in the ditches,
while horned free-range cattle calmly block the little bridge
over the streams which plunge into a maze of tributaries all
rushing to their home at Caragh Lake.
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