With a selection of properties ranging from lighthouses to gate lodges, the Landmark Trust offers guests accommodation with a difference, writes Gemma Tipton
DID YOU EVER fancy being a lighthouse keeper? What about king or queen of the castle? Or a grand lady escaping from her mansion for a day to play house in a gothic cottage?
The Irish Landmark Trust can make all these fantasies and more come true with a stay in one of their wonderfully restored and renovated properties.
In Ireland, holidays in the former great houses are well known: you can revel in former glories courtesy of the Blue Book and Hidden Ireland hotels and guesthouses, or have the slightly odder experience of sleeping in a modern wing, tacked onto the back, in places such as Carton House in Co Kildare and the Radisson Farnham in Cavan; but what about our smaller snippets of architectural heritage?
Those unsung gate lodges, school houses, cottages and mews buildings, as well as the aforementioned lighthouses and mini-castles – these are where the Landmark Trust comes in.
We tried out two of their properties, the oldest and the newest (in terms of when the Landmark Trust took them on), and I can honestly say each experience was absolutely unforgettable, for all the right reasons.
First stop was the Wicklow Head Lighthouse. Built in 1781, it has walls a metre thick, and six octagonal rooms, each rising higher until you come to the kitchen, 109 steps up at the very top. There are two enchanting bedrooms, a bathroom (obviously) and a little sittingroom.
Because the walls are so thick, the windows, which face exactly north, south, east and west, have lovely deep window seats and you could happily lose hours staring out to sea or across the Wicklow countryside.
There was a storm when we stayed, and listening to the wind whistling round our tower, while we were safe and invincible in the thick of it, felt like an amazing adventure.
All the Landmark Trust properties are self catering, but everything else you might need has been thought of, so there are hot water bottles (just in case), tea and coffee, and all the plates, knives and forks, wine glasses and cooking utensils you could need for a fantastic feast.
Each property also has its own manager, who is there to give you the key and tell you everything you might need to know. In the case of the lighthouse, the managers are lighthouse keeper Brendan Conway and his wife Miriam, who are full of stories about the building, its history, and some of its previous guests. Brendan looks after the newer lighthouse, still operational further down towards the sea.
“They lit this one with candles, 12 inches across and 13 inches high,” he tells us. They climbed up ladders with them, until one night the lantern was destroyed in 1836. It was struck by lightening in a storm. I begin to wonder whether I was right to have felt so invincible the previous night!
Brendan and Miriam have tried out other Landmark Trust properties: his favourite is Termon House, right on the coast in Donegal. “I’d never want to be too far from the sea,” he says. Hers is the 19th-century Annaghmore Schoolhouse in Co Sligo.
The Landmark Trust’s most recent restoration is the gloriously-named Batty Langley Lodge on the grounds of Castletown House. Back in the 1700s, gothic architecture was all the rage, and the enterprising Batty Langley had published a book Gothic Architecture, in 1747; a sort of bungalow bliss for the Georgian era, perhaps. At Castletown, Lady Louisa took a fancy to the “Gothick Temple”, and had it built at the end of a pretty river walk, as a place to which she could escape, play house and pretend to be picturesquely poor – rather like Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon in Versailles, but on a much smaller scale.
Batty Langley has a fabulous façade with seven stone pinnacles, plus arched and rounded windows. Being newly restored, the grounds still need to bed in, as the lawns have just been seeded, but inside everything is perfect. We bought enough food to feed a small army (even though Batty Langley only sleeps two), but managed to steadily snack our way through everything. Next day we walked some of it off by wandering up to Castletown, where there was an “exotic plant sale”, but as there was also a barbecue, we undid all the good work of the walk again.
Batty Langley sits beside the river, and later we sat outside on the terrace, watching fishermen at work. It’s the almost perfect romantic getaway, the only teeny downside being that as it’s such a fascinating building, other walkers are apt occasionally to come up and have a peek. Apparently some hedging (or something) is going in to prevent that in the future.
Any other doubts about the Landmark Trust? If you’re enormously tall, check the size of the beds. People were smaller in the past, and as the restorations are as authentic as possible – mod cons such as plumbing and central heating notwithstanding – you don’t get massive beds. But that’s about it, everything else about my stay has just whetted my appetite to visit more. There’s a castle in Kilkenny (sleeps 10) that I have my eye on, and the Triumphal Arch Gatelodge in Co Fermanagh, too. There are also two properties in Dublin for anyone looking for a city stay with a difference.
Bookings are for full weeks, or three days midweek, and long weekends (you can’t go just overnight) and, when you do book, you get a long list of terms and conditions to sign – but don’t be put off by that, it’s just making sure that these wonderful properties are protected.
The Landmark Trust was established in 1992, with Nicholas Robinson and Trinity’s Eddie McParland among the founding trustees. With more properties in train, the trust gets its money through grants from the likes of the Heritage Council, as well as from fundraising and donations, and also from the income from guests.
So go on, have a holiday in Ireland with a difference, and when you’re leaving, don’t forget to sign the visitors’ book. As executive director Mary O’Brien says: “We like to think that in years to come, people will look at the visitors books and write the continuing story of who was there. It’s a living history, and we want people to be part of it.”
Rates from €350 approx midweek, depending on property and dates. see irishlandmark.com