dromoland castle

Conor O'Brien, 18th Baron Inchiquin, is the O'Brien of Thomond, direct descendant of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, who defeated the Vikings at the battle of Clontarf in 1014. He still lives amid the 1000-acre estate through which the river Rine meanders, and is the former owner of Dromoland Castle, though he has built himself a new, more modest mansion, and his erstwhile ancestral home is now a luxury hotel.
The original entrance leads up into a small hall, furnished with a spreading many-armed brass candelabrum and ancestral portraits. Doors open into the former library, shelved floor to ceiling, which now contains the bar - it overlooks the lake - and a small sitting room, which has a view of the rose-garden. A wide gallery lined with antlered heads and containing groups of elegant settees ends in a straight wide flight of steps up to the main bedrooms.
Viewed across the lake, Dromoland's wealth of crenelated battlements, towers, turrets, and flags rising from the smoothly mown green undulations of the 18-hole golf course appears almost unbelievably picturesque.