Overview
Hunter’s Hotel has been run by the same family for five generations, and the building is older still: a coaching inn put up around 1720 on the old Dublin–Wicklow road, back when the business was a change of horses and a bed for the night. It stands on the River Vartry at Rathnew, about an hour’s drive from Dublin – the hotel says 45 minutes, but allow more in traffic. The reason to come isn’t really the rooms; it’s the two acres of garden along the river, and how little has been modernised away. If you want contemporary and minimalist, this isn’t it. If you want chintz, antique prints and a pot of tea on the lawn, it’s exactly it.
History & Heritage
The land here was granted to Sir Abraham Yarner in the 17th century, and the inn went up around 1720 to serve stagecoaches on the Dublin–Wicklow route. It takes its name from the Hunter family, who leased it from the Tighe estate around 1825; the same family has held it ever since, now into the fifth generation. Rather than gut the structure, successive owners kept the original features – biscuit-brown floor tiles, hand-cut wooden beams, chintz furnishings and the period prints that line the corridors. The Department of Environment’s Architectural Heritage of County Wicklow (2004) records it as a rare, largely intact example of an early 18th-century commercial inn.
The Good Hotel Guide has named it among Ireland’s ten most beautiful hotels, and the King and Queen of Sweden are among the guests who have stayed. The layout still follows the old coaching pattern, with reception and dining set to greet arrivals from the road and the bedrooms tucked along quiet internal passages.
The Gardens
Two acres run along the riverbank, part ornamental display and part working kitchen garden. What’s out depends on the season:
- Oriental poppies in May and June, with heritage roses filling the early-summer borders
- Mature specimen trees – magnolias, rhododendrons, liriodendron, ginkgo, paulownia, nothofagus and eucryphia
- A walled herb garden that supplies the kitchen with basil, thyme and rosemary
- Gravel and paved paths looping down to a small footbridge over the Vartry
The kitchen garden grows seasonal vegetables, soft fruit and edible flowers such as nasturtiums, which turn up as garnishes in the dining room. The Vartry itself is the river that once supplied Dublin’s drinking water, and its steady flow is the backdrop to any walk through the grounds.
Dining
The restaurant keeps its 19th-century room – half-panelled, half-papered, with small-paned sash windows over the garden. It’s traditional Irish cooking, not contemporary fine dining, and that suits the house.
Service hours
- Lunch: daily from 12.30pm; Sunday lunch in two sittings, 12.30pm and 2.30pm (weekday lunch can start closer to 1pm, so ring to confirm)
- Dinner: every evening, 7pm–8.30pm
- Afternoon tea: 4pm–5.30pm, seasonal
The menu leans on local produce – Wicklow leg of lamb with buttery mash and thyme treacle gravy, chicken-liver pâté with melba toast, salads from the garden. At the time of writing, dinner runs roughly €40–€60 for two or three courses, Sunday lunch about €48.50, afternoon tea about €35 a head. If you’re only stopping once, make it the afternoon tea in the garden on a fine day. Book ahead for weekends and peak season; dietary requirements can usually be handled with notice.
Accommodation & Practical Information
There are 16 individually decorated bedrooms, each with a private bathroom, flat-screen TV and phone; several look over the gardens. Check-in is from 3pm, check-out by 11am. Rates are built around bed and breakfast (from around €110 per person sharing at the time of writing) and dinner, bed and breakfast packages, with occasional special offers – check the website for current prices.
Free on-site parking is in a courtyard bordered by a small flock of hens, and wheelchair-accessible routes connect the car park, reception, restaurant and garden paths.
Getting there
- By car: take the M11 to the Newrath Bridge exit and follow signs to Rathnew; the hotel is about 2 km from the junction.
- By train: Wicklow town station is roughly 4.2 km away, with a short taxi to finish.
- By ferry: Dún Laoghaire is about 30 minutes by car, Rosslare about 90 minutes; Belfast is around 135 minutes, Cork around 180.
- By air: Dublin Airport is roughly 45 minutes via the M11.
Exploring Rathnew & Wicklow
The hotel is well placed for the wider county. Within a short drive you can reach:
- Mount Usher Gardens and Avondale Forest Park
- The historic estates at Powerscourt, Russborough and Killruddery
- Brittas Bay, a long sandy beach backed by dunes
- Coastal towns like Bray and Arklow along the N11
- The Druid’s Glen and The European golf courses, both within half an hour
Reception can arrange local taxis and point you to walks suited to different legs. For the gardens at their best, come in May or June, when the oriental poppies are out.