DUNBOY CASTLE HOTEL, COUNTY CORK

DUNBOY CASTLE HOTEL, COUNTY CORK

DUNBOY CASTLE HOTEL, COUNTY CORK

PJ Hegarty undertook the conservation, reconstruction, and extension to the historic Dunboy Castle overlooking Bantry Bay on the Berea Peninsula in County Cork. This complex project saw us restore a badly dilapidated Victiorian mansion partly destroyed by fire and develop it for use as a luxury hotel and spa, thus ensuring the preservation of an important historical building for future generations in a sustainable way.

Client : Resort Hotel Developments Ltd
Service : Hotel
Architect : RKD Architects
Quantity surveyors : Bruce Shaw Partnership
Structural engineer : Horgan Lynch & Partners
Services engineer : Arup
Value : €52 million

The main building includes 12 guest bedrooms and all ancillary hotel facilities including a  health spa area with pool, gym, and massage and treatment rooms. We also oversaw construction of a separate 72-bedroom block sensitively designed to compliment the historic structure of Dunboy Castle, including a link bridge to the main hotel. An ancillary services building was constructed within an existing courtyard area, as well as a security guest house, public toilets, fencing, car-parking, a sewage-treatment unit and all associated site works.

The overall size of the construction area measured 10,500m² plus a small basement area of 250m². The restoration of a building of this size and in such a state of disrepair, to the standards required by the Department of the Environment, was an extremely ambitious project involving some of the most demanding stonework conservation ever carried out in Ireland.