Lodge at Doonbeg Golf Club

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Style: Traditional Elegance

Atmosphere: Secluded

40 Rooms

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Sticklers may be disappointed to learn that the Lodge at Doonbeg, a sprawling seaside manor in County Clare, is just a couple of years old, but it’s their loss, to be honest. Thankfully the question of provenance means quite a lot less in the hospitality world then in, say, antiquities, or the art world. That golf course is of recent Greg Norman vintage, and the whole house dates back only a few years. But it’s a stunning re-creation, and whatever it lacks in story it more than makes up for in function, which in the case of a golf resort means simply an excellent course and a very fine luxury hotel.

Doonbeg benefits greatly from a phenomenal location, on a relatively isolated stretch of coast. The hotel is laid out a bit like a village, with some rooms in the main lodge and others in outlying buildings and cottages. And despite the hotel’s youth, much attention was paid to the traditional interiors — even the thoroughly contemporary kitchens in the cottages and suites are furnished with antique-style pieces, and the manor-house atmosphere is never broken. The newness of the place shows mostly in the physical quality of the facilities; in-room comforts are up to the standard of any luxury hotel, the spa is as modern as they come, and the golf club is naturally state-of-the-art. All that’s missing is some made-up blarney about the castle’s centuries-old heritage, an omission that doesn’t bother us in the least.