The architect who designed Dublin’s old Parliament House on College Green designed this too: a red-brick palace built in 1732 as the residence of the Church of Ireland archbishops of Cashel, sitting directly below the Rock of Cashel. After standing empty for years, it reopened in March 2022 as a five-star hotel, and much of what makes it worth a detour is open to people who aren’t staying the night.
The building
Cashel Palace was commissioned around 1730 by Archbishop Theophilus Bolton and designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, the leading Palladian architect of his day. The front is warm red brick with carved limestone dressings and triple Venetian windows – a Queen Anne face on an early Georgian house – while the rear is faced in local limestone. The gardens still hold mulberry trees said to date from 1702, older than the palace itself.
The building was the archbishops’ residence for well over a century, later became a hotel, then closed in 2014. The Magnier family bought it in 2016 and spent roughly five years on the restoration, down to limecrete floors with underfloor heating and breathable insulation to keep the fabric of the house sound. It now has 42 rooms and suites and belongs to the Relais & Châteaux group.
The Guinness connection
The house has a decent claim on the origins of the black stuff. In the 1740s Richard Guinness, land agent to Archbishop Arthur Price, brewed ale on the grounds using hops grown in the palace garden. His son Arthur Guinness – the archbishop’s godson – inherited £100 from Price and put it towards the 999-year lease at St James’s Gate in Dublin. The garden still grows hops, reputedly descended from those Richard tended, and the hotel leans into the story that the recipe was worked out here before it ever reached Dublin. Take the finer details as folklore, but the family link is real.
What you can do without a room
You don’t have to book a suite to get inside. Afternoon tea is served most days in the Queen Anne Room and on the garden terrace, open to non-residents and starting around €65 a head, more with a glass of Prosecco or champagne. The Bishop’s Buttery, the hotel’s basement restaurant, holds a Michelin star for its Irish cooking and takes bookings for lunch and dinner. For something more relaxed, Mikey Ryan’s Bar & Kitchen sits on the adjoining grounds and serves locals as much as guests, and the Guinness Bar is the obvious place for a pint given the history.
The spa is the other way in. It looks out over the gardens and has a heated 17-metre pool, five metres of which runs outdoors, plus a sauna, steam room and seaweed baths. Day and treatment packages are sold to visitors, subject to booking.
The Bishop’s Walk
The best thing here costs nothing extra if you’re already on site. A private path called the Bishop’s Walk runs from the garden up the hill to the Rock of Cashel, the medieval cathedral complex that dominates the skyline. It’s the route the archbishops once took between palace and cathedral, and it gives you the Rock from below with Hore Abbey laid out on the plain beyond.
An honest word on price
This is a five-star hotel, and it charges like one. Rooms start at around €399 midweek and the larger suites run well past €1,200 a night in high season. There’s no general tour of the interior either – access to the house is through dining, the spa or a stay, not a ticket desk. If the room rates are out of reach, the afternoon tea or a spa afternoon is the affordable way to see the place.
Nearby
You’re in the thick of Tipperary’s heritage cluster. The Rock of Cashel is a two-minute walk; Hore Abbey sits in the field just below it. Cahir Castle, one of the largest intact Norman castles in Ireland, is about 20 minutes down the road towards the Galtee Mountains.
The move is to book afternoon tea for the early afternoon, then walk it off on the Bishop’s Walk up to the Rock while the light is still good on the limestone.