Homely fires still burning in Killarney

Yet, for all of the thousands of ‘bednights’ (is any hospitality term more depressingly reductive?) there’s only a handful with as much genuine history, and character, as the diminutive, manor-like Cahernane House, by Killarney’s rightly famed lakes. God’s country, for sure.

On a previous visit to Cahernane, and back-then uninvited, we’d almost crept up the lone, beech-tree lined approach avenue to the this most Victorian of great Kerry houses, not sure if its glories were for ‘residents only’. Previously, as a couple, we’d been at a corporate/work gathering at a significantly large local, very modern hotel out this Muckross side of Killarney, with all the spa ’n’ pool trimmings at the spot where we were laying our ‘bednight’ heads for the term, but just had an inkling that Cahernane, up that dark yet inviting avenue (think Game of Thrones-light), had a different vibe.

We weren’t disappointed, from the moment we walked in all those years ago, and saw the homely fire all ablaze in the reception, and another real open fire in the library, and then found the dark womb-like cellar-level bar. It was a sanctuary; if you’ve ever been to the Cashel Palace Hotel’s basement bar, and found it hard to come up for air, you’ll know the lure of going down to arched surrounds, in ancient buildings.

Well, having landed uninvited several years ago, and felt we’d ‘crashed’ a private residents’ bar, we revisited Killarney’s Cahernane House and stayed a weekend within as proper guests, and found it all we’d hoped for, and then some. Home fires blazing, with a warmth of hospitality that seemed positively old-school.

It was crisp, dry November, the Virginia creeper up the façade around its entrance steps had shed its beardy cloak; we had bicycles strapped to the back of the car for safe, exploratory cycles around the National Park, Dinis, Torc, and the town, and were looking forward to a winterish-weekend of walks, cycles, great food, hot and cold treats, indoors and out. This is what Killarney does best, all year round; whatever the town has going on, it is always going to be outclassed by the natural surrounds, bulwarked by a National Park which Cahernae House bounds.

No disappointment; the fire blazed still as a carbon and log-scented inferno in Cahernane’s lofty, corballed and wood-ceilinged hall/reception in the central core of this 1870s-built period home, a building happily pressed into 21st century hospitality.

It turns out that the quite sizeable (and, salvaged) metal fireplace (atmospherically, with antlered stag’s head overhead) belonged to the original and quite grand Herbert 1750s family’s Cahernane home which had previously stood on this spot, and which was demolished as it was considered not quite up to speed, on the indoor plumbing front among other perceived shortcomings.

The original house that stood here was even grander (demolition was a bit of a crime, but the replacement has found its well-planted feet), and the plans for the new (1870s) build by acclaimed architect James Franklin Fuller were for something even more grandiose than what was eventually built nearly 150 years ago.

(Fuller’s pedigree is scintillating: think Farmleigh, in Dublin, Kylemore Abbey and Ashford Castle in the west, Parknasilla, Derreen and Cahernane in his native Co Kerry among his admirable output). It turns out, economic cutting of cloth to one’s measure existed way, way back before the economic crash of recent times.

In fact, previous downturns necessitated the makeover of Cahernane House from 19th century luxurious private family home (in grandeur stakes, it would have been on a par with Muckross House, or the just-reopened now-visitor attraction Killarney House) to income generating hotel in 1910, when it was leased as a hotel and in 1940 it was bought by an Italian, Vincent Albericci.

Cahernane has changed hands five times since, and was bought from Kerry hoteliers the Browne family in 2016 by the PREM Group, for c €3 million. They’ve spent as much again on the first phase renewing the 12 suites in the original building, and come 2018 are upgrading the 26 ‘garden rooms’ in the 1960s added-on wing, at a similar €2-3m investment. They’ve also gone for planning for 22 more bedrooms, plus an orangerie. Yum, it’s all so worth it.

Today at a place that recently scored two AA Rosettes, head chef is Eric Kavanagh, who’d last been here in 1999, and since he’s been to Sheen Falls, Longueville, Rathsallagh and Marlfield House among Irish bases (sense a yen for period properties with soul?) as well as journeying to Canada and New Zealand, before returning in August 2016 to lay down a gastronomic marker at Cahernane.

I was blown away by the €50 multi-course Table d’Hote menu, beginning with the delicate home made breads (I’m easily sated); but my missus, a vegetarian and cook of some ability, can be a challenge. She scanned the veggie options, and when she saw the dreaded (oft predictable/cheffy) goat’s Cordal dairy sauce provenance on a pasta main course (squash tortellini, with wild mushrooms, Jerusalem artichoke and baby carrots), thought she’d be settling for the vegetables of the day.

The chef readily adapted the dish, sans Cordal goat sauce, and herself adjudicated the stuffed pasta parcels on a par with any vegetarian meal in west Cork’s Pilgrims restaurant, or in the city’s Café Paradiso. That’s great culinary company, without any advance notice or fuss. Kudos to Mr Kavanagh and team.

Cahernane’s USP (unique selling point) is its original Co Kerry wealthy Herbert family pedigree, and long, long history, mirroring Irish, Munster and Kerry economic tides.

Now, aided by a curious inland Killarney uplift to the coasline’s Wild Atlantic Way, lake-set Cahernane is back on a decided ‘up’. Killarney is booming, practically year-round. This precious hotel is on an investment curve, and re-opens for the 2018 season after its second phase of upgrades, in early March.

Staff are lovely, and naturally understated, and seem to have serious regard for a very human ‘fixture,’ an American gent of senior years who now lives locally and calls by to Cahernane House many evenings to sit by one of the several open fires, looking as if he’d been dressed for the occasion by Quills. The entirely distinguished gentlemen is known and greeted, on first name terms, Earl, and that’s got a coincidental historical resonance at Cahernane’s lands date back to the 1600s and to the Earls of Pembroke.

From earls, to Earl, plus ca change. Cahernane smacks of ageless, genteel hospitality.

- Details: www.cahernane.com. Room rates for two range from €130 per night online