One of Ireland's great Regency houses, completed around 1826 to designs attributed to Richard Morrison and his son William Vitruvius Morrison, sat largely dormant for decades before being transformed into Ballyfin Demesne — a house hotel of just twenty rooms spread across a landscape of lake, walled garden, and Slieve Bloom mountain moorland that together constitute some six hundred acres of managed demesne. The aerial view confirms what makes the property so arresting: the cut-stone neoclassical pile stands in almost theatrical isolation on its lawn, flanked by a colonnaded temple folly and the long rubble wall of the kitchen garden, the whole composition more private estate than hotel. Inside, the interiors were restored under the direction of designer David Hicks Jr. and the Irish conservation architect John O'Connell, with the intention of returning each room to a plausible period character rather than imposing a uniform decorating scheme. The approach shows: the Blue Room's hand-blocked wallpaper in watered-silk pattern, elaborate plasterwork ceiling, and four-poster dressed in cream muslin curtains with garland detailing belong to an entirely different register from the Chinoiserie room, with its hand-painted panels and lacquered red cabinet. The dining room, hung salon-style with large grisaille canvases above saffron-washed walls, centres on a Waterford crystal chandelier that casts the space in warm amber. Even the pool addition, fitted with gilded Rococo cartouches against white render, refuses to read as an afterthought.

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Set at the foot of the Slieve Bloom Mountains in the centre of Ireland, Ballyfin is a place of history and romance, of tranquility and great natural beauty. At Ballyfin formality is blended with ease and enjoyment. The house has long been admired as the most lavish Regency mansion in Ireland, and after eight years of restoration, Ballyfin re-opened in May 2011 as a small 5 star country house hotel like no other. It offers the very best of Irish hospitality in the most beautiful surroundings imaginable. Enjoy the splendid interiors decorated with Irish Art and antiques from around the world. With only twenty rooms for the 614 acre estate, it is the perfect place for a break from the stresses of the modern world and provides discretion and privacy like few other destinations. Conceived on a generous scale for receiving guests, Ballyfin combines magnificence and intimacy in its State rooms. From the grandeur of the Saloon at the heart of the house, the eighty-foot library, the sun filled Conservatory which is reached through a secret door hidden in a bookshelf in the library. At Ballyfin, stone walls enclose 614 acres of parkland, a lake and ancient woods, delightful garden buildings, follies and grottoes. Whether you feel like swimming some laps, enjoying some water exercises or simply relaxing, our indoor pool, overlooking the courtyard garden, will be a beautiful space for invigoration and wellbeing. Come and enjoy life!!