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About the Author
Mackenzie
Carpenter
Email AuthorCall 412-263-1949Follow me on TwitterMackenzie Carpenter is a feature writer for the Post-Gazette. She has won national, state and local awards for her reporting on health care, education, children and family issues and legal affairs. Before arriving at the PG in 1990, Carpenter covered politics for United Press International in Harrisburg and was a producer and reporter for public television stations in Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania. She was raised in Princeton, N.J. and Tokyo. She has a bachelor's degree from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and a master's degree in studies in law from Yale Law School. More »
Travel
Luxury, hospitality in 'hidden Ireland'
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Luxury, hospitality in 'hidden Ireland'
Sunday, August 12, 2012
By Mackenzie Carpenter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Mackenzie Carpenter/Post-Gazette
The historic Beech Hill Country House Hotel near Derry, in Northern Ireland, was built in 1739. In 1942, U.S. Marines were billeted there. President Bill Clinton has stayed there twice.
SLANE, COUNTY MEATH, Ireland -- Inside the glossy brochure called "Hidden Ireland," a compendium of grand, historic guest houses, there is a fragment from a poem -- not by the quintessentially Irish William Butler Yeats, but by the quintessentially American Robert Frost:
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by/
And that has made all the difference."
If you go
Beech Hill Country House Hotel
32 Ardmore Road
Rates: 85 pounds ($133 dollars) for a double on weekdays; 95 pounds ($148 dollars) on weekends; 220 pounds ($344 dollars) for a master suite weekdays; 235 pounds ($367) for a master suite, weekends. Full Irish breakfast included in price.
Open March 17 to Oct. 31. Groups and small functions welcome. Group dinner parties and afternoon teas a speciality all year.
Rates: 140 euros ($174 dollars) per double room per night.
Dinner: 45 euros ($56 dollars). Book the previous day.
The public relations people of "Hidden Ireland" know what they're doing when they invoke Frost's well-loved lines rather than Yeats': Americans love to travel in Ireland, but sometimes it makes all the difference to go off the beaten path and discover, as I did, beautiful places hidden in plain sight.
When I was in Ireland on assignment earlier this summer, Dublin was unseasonably hot, hectic and completely new to me. I didn't realize, for example, how nice it would be to have a car: There are no subways in Dublin, and the country's train service is far less extensive than in the U.K.
But lucky me: I knew people. And so, amid all the interviews and deadlines, I was able, with their help, to take a breath and experience two history-drenched places, one in Northern Ireland, and one in the south, in the Republic of Ireland.
Beech Hill Country House Hotel, Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland
Frank Gallagher, a friend of my family, is a well-regarded musician and music producer in Northern Ireland. He is also, as so many Irish are, a gifted storyteller.
I hopped a train from Dublin to Belfast, and he picked me up at the ultra-modern train station. Expecting dingy streets and graffiti, I got sunshine and urban design -- and a fascinating tutorial from Frank on the complicated history of Northern Ireland. I asked so many questions, we quickly developed a shorthand: "Pre-famine," he'd say when I'd ask about some old castle -- i.e., prior to the 1840s -- as he drove over the Glenshane Pass to Derry. Bit by bit, Northern Ireland has "dragged itself off its knees," Frank said. In 2013, Derry will be the U.K.'s official "City of Culture, which means a full schedule of concerts, art exhibitions, theater and other cultural doings.
In recent years, new hotels have sprouted up in this historic, battle-scarred, beautiful city, but when we turned into the lush grounds of the Beech Hill Country House Hotel two miles outside Dublin, my heart stopped at the sight of the elegant 18th-century Georgian manor house with the little sports car parked out front. I half expected Daniel Craig to hop in and drive away.
The Beech Hill was built in 1739, remaining a private home until 1989, when it was purchased by the current owner, Patsy O'Kane, who lovingly renovated and opened the house as a hotel in 1991.
The rooms are comfortable, the food excellent -- the hotel's Ardmore restaurant is considered one of the best in all of Ireland, north and south, using locally grown ingredients. But the best reason to go there is because of the lobby.
Much of 20th-century Northern Irish history hangs on these raspberry-colored walls: photo after photo of former President Bill Clinton, who stayed here twice in the 1990s. There he is with Hillary, and being greeted by Ms. O'Kane. There's Sen. John Kerry with wife Teresa Heinz Kerry and Northern Ireland's Nobel Prize-winning political leader John Hume. And all three Kennedy brothers, signed by Sen. Edward Kennedy.
In an adjoining room, the walls are covered with black-and-white photographs of American soldiers. Derry is on the northern Atlantic, and the Navy was stationed here along with other Allied forces during World War II's long Battle of the Atlantic -- actually several naval campaigns from 1939-45 protecting convoy routes against German U-boats.
More than 750 Marines were assigned to guard the U.S. Naval base, and were billeted at a camp on Beech Hill's grounds between 1942-45.
"At Derry I found an unofficious, friendly, quick-thinking people," wrote famed American war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who stayed at the hotel in 1942 and whose article, published in what was then called the Boston Daily Globe, hangs on the wall. There are other pictures, too -- of soldiers standing guard, or with an Irish farmer they've befriended, or playing the bagpipes with a young Irish woman.
Article Tools
Images
View all images
Related Stories
PG slideshow: Back roads of Ireland
About the Author
Mackenzie
Carpenter
Email AuthorCall 412-263-1949Follow me on TwitterMackenzie Carpenter is a feature writer for the Post-Gazette. She has won national, state and local awards for her reporting on health care, education, children and family issues and legal affairs. Before arriving at the PG in 1990, Carpenter covered politics for United Press International in Harrisburg and was a producer and reporter for public television stations in Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania. She was raised in Princeton, N.J. and Tokyo. She has a bachelor's degree from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and a master's degree in studies in law from Yale Law School. More »
Travel
Luxury, hospitality in 'hidden Ireland'
Volunteer Trips: Is Your Family Ready?
The Other Siberian Railroad
In a Swedish City, Reinvention Under Ancient Spires
36 Hours in Montpellier, France
Luxury, hospitality in 'hidden Ireland'
Sunday, August 12, 2012
By Mackenzie Carpenter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Mackenzie Carpenter/Post-Gazette
The historic Beech Hill Country House Hotel near Derry, in Northern Ireland, was built in 1739. In 1942, U.S. Marines were billeted there. President Bill Clinton has stayed there twice.
SLANE, COUNTY MEATH, Ireland -- Inside the glossy brochure called "Hidden Ireland," a compendium of grand, historic guest houses, there is a fragment from a poem -- not by the quintessentially Irish William Butler Yeats, but by the quintessentially American Robert Frost:
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by/
And that has made all the difference."
If you go
Beech Hill Country House Hotel
32 Ardmore Road
Rates: 85 pounds ($133 dollars) for a double on weekdays; 95 pounds ($148 dollars) on weekends; 220 pounds ($344 dollars) for a master suite weekdays; 235 pounds ($367) for a master suite, weekends. Full Irish breakfast included in price.
Open March 17 to Oct. 31. Groups and small functions welcome. Group dinner parties and afternoon teas a speciality all year.
Rates: 140 euros ($174 dollars) per double room per night.
Dinner: 45 euros ($56 dollars). Book the previous day.
The public relations people of "Hidden Ireland" know what they're doing when they invoke Frost's well-loved lines rather than Yeats': Americans love to travel in Ireland, but sometimes it makes all the difference to go off the beaten path and discover, as I did, beautiful places hidden in plain sight.
When I was in Ireland on assignment earlier this summer, Dublin was unseasonably hot, hectic and completely new to me. I didn't realize, for example, how nice it would be to have a car: There are no subways in Dublin, and the country's train service is far less extensive than in the U.K.
But lucky me: I knew people. And so, amid all the interviews and deadlines, I was able, with their help, to take a breath and experience two history-drenched places, one in Northern Ireland, and one in the south, in the Republic of Ireland.
Beech Hill Country House Hotel, Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland
Frank Gallagher, a friend of my family, is a well-regarded musician and music producer in Northern Ireland. He is also, as so many Irish are, a gifted storyteller.
I hopped a train from Dublin to Belfast, and he picked me up at the ultra-modern train station. Expecting dingy streets and graffiti, I got sunshine and urban design -- and a fascinating tutorial from Frank on the complicated history of Northern Ireland. I asked so many questions, we quickly developed a shorthand: "Pre-famine," he'd say when I'd ask about some old castle -- i.e., prior to the 1840s -- as he drove over the Glenshane Pass to Derry. Bit by bit, Northern Ireland has "dragged itself off its knees," Frank said. In 2013, Derry will be the U.K.'s official "City of Culture, which means a full schedule of concerts, art exhibitions, theater and other cultural doings.
In recent years, new hotels have sprouted up in this historic, battle-scarred, beautiful city, but when we turned into the lush grounds of the Beech Hill Country House Hotel two miles outside Dublin, my heart stopped at the sight of the elegant 18th-century Georgian manor house with the little sports car parked out front. I half expected Daniel Craig to hop in and drive away.
The Beech Hill was built in 1739, remaining a private home until 1989, when it was purchased by the current owner, Patsy O'Kane, who lovingly renovated and opened the house as a hotel in 1991.
The rooms are comfortable, the food excellent -- the hotel's Ardmore restaurant is considered one of the best in all of Ireland, north and south, using locally grown ingredients. But the best reason to go there is because of the lobby.
Much of 20th-century Northern Irish history hangs on these raspberry-colored walls: photo after photo of former President Bill Clinton, who stayed here twice in the 1990s. There he is with Hillary, and being greeted by Ms. O'Kane. There's Sen. John Kerry with wife Teresa Heinz Kerry and Northern Ireland's Nobel Prize-winning political leader John Hume. And all three Kennedy brothers, signed by Sen. Edward Kennedy.
In an adjoining room, the walls are covered with black-and-white photographs of American soldiers. Derry is on the northern Atlantic, and the Navy was stationed here along with other Allied forces during World War II's long Battle of the Atlantic -- actually several naval campaigns from 1939-45 protecting convoy routes against German U-boats.
More than 750 Marines were assigned to guard the U.S. Naval base, and were billeted at a camp on Beech Hill's grounds between 1942-45.
"At Derry I found an unofficious, friendly, quick-thinking people," wrote famed American war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who stayed at the hotel in 1942 and whose article, published in what was then called the Boston Daily Globe, hangs on the wall. There are other pictures, too -- of soldiers standing guard, or with an Irish farmer they've befriended, or playing the bagpipes with a young Irish woman.
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