Rooms with a view: Great places to stay around Ireland with gorgeous vistas

A Room With a View, the title of E M Forster’s 1908 novel about love and society, pivots around the otherworldly Florentine streetscape seen from a bedroom window at the Pensione Bertolini. One character in the book describes how pleasant it is “to fling wide the windows, pinching the fingers in unfamiliar fastenings, to lean out into sunshine with beautiful hills and trees and marble churches”.

Here in Ireland, as days grow shorter or weather hampers outdoor adventures, a backup plan with a dramatic view from a fireside chair and a glass of something is always a good idea. With endless kilometres of coastline, mountains, lakes and impressive ancient landmarks to rival the best Italian landscapes, it’s important to find a place where the view is showcased through big windows.

However, accommodation like that is not that easy to find due to a lingering legacy embodied in planning regulations that belong back in the time of old draughty walls or extortionate window taxes levied in the late 18th century. Despite that, there’s a recent movement towards clever architecture that capitalises on setting and natural light. We’ve managed to round up 10 superb self-catering units and hotels with the best views in Ireland.

Sheen Falls Lodge

Kenmare, Co Kerry

Wrapped around a swift flow of rapids that pour out into the sea, the Sheen Falls offers its guests a choice of outlooks, either a cascading river setting or of a calm bay seascape. In a hotel that promises epic views from every room, it’s hard to choose, but the wooded vantage point from the falls’ side is impossible to rival. Double doors lead to a private terrace overlooking the cascades, and upstream, an 18th century arched stone bridge with a vaulted parapet gives a romantic backdrop.

The scent of pine and river spray from the water as it gushes by over rock on its way to the bay adds to the scene. The rooms are decorated in muted shades with large windows to take in the stunning scenery. Upstairs, the Falls Restaurant captures the river and bridge setting with a flavoursome menu to match the view.

Rooms from €207. Self-catering available. sheenfallslodge.ie

Breac.House

Horn Head peninsula, Co Donegal

Breac.House’s floor to ceiling glass captures the sweeping views of Muckish Mountain and Sheephaven Bay from its lush hillside perch on Horn Head. Guests can watch the seasons play out, or if they are lucky, catch the Northern Lights from the secluded window of this home. North Donegal’s wild elements might bellow across the rooftop, but inside, the warm, locally sourced textiles keep the chill from the door.

The three bedrooms in Breac.House offer a retreat from urban life in this windswept hideaway that started life as a 1980s bungalow to become the very epitome of minimalist chic, recently featuring in the New York Times. Yet it doesn’t turn its back on its origins – the hardwood flooring, flagstones and Donegal tweed offer visitors a genuine sense of place in this wild, northerly outcrop. On-site facilities include a garden wood fire sauna and bikes, while across the bay in Dunfanaghy, guests can stock up with provisions or have a pint and a pizza in the Rusty Oven behind Patsy Dan’s pub before nestling down for the evening.

Rooms cost €355 per night including a multi-course breakfast in bed, a picnic lunch, pre-dinner drinks, snacks and drinks in your room, a seaweed bath for two, and use of the sauna and bikes. breac.house

Gougane Barra Hotel

Co Cork

Little St Finbarr’s oratory is perched so close to the edge of a forested promontory that it almost appears to float over the glacially clear waters of a lake. It’s an image you can enjoy from your bedroom window at the Gougane Barra Hotel, a sweet, timeless property that lies in the lush folds of a valley beneath the Shehy Mountains. The pastoral shades and large paned windows distract little from the serenity of the panoramas across 137 hectares that could pass as a Swiss Alps or Rocky Mountains setting.

The restaurant and public spaces are viewing terraces of the towering pines and the lake below, where you can toss tackle from the hotel’s boat from springtime to mid-autumn. The hotel offers a fishing permit – and will even cook your catch for dinner. A small island accessed by a causeway is where St Finbarr, patron saint of Cork, founded his monastery in the 6th century.

Rooms from €165. gouganebarrahotel.com

Aran Islands Camping and Glamping

Inis Mór, Co Galway

If you really want an up close and personal connection with an ocean breeze, then catch a ferry or plane to Inis Mór and follow the laneway to Frenchman’s Beach on the north side of the island. It’s a small but perfectly formed sandy cove with neat rows of glamping units. The beehive-shaped clocháns sleep four while the larger tigíns have room for up to six and the best views. They face north, across the strand, towards the Atlantic and the Connemara coastline.

About 8km to the west is Dún Aonghasa, a magnificent 3,000-year-old stone fort teetering over a 87-metre-high cliff edge, while 10 minutes away on foot from Frenchman’s Beach, Joe Watty’s Bar is the place for music, food and drink late into the night.

From €150 for four people. irelandglamping.ie

Strand Hotel

Limerick City

The two glass walls on the corner rooms of the Strand command a sweeping perspective of the Shannon, the longest river in both Ireland and Britain, along with the roofscape of Ireland’s third city. With that, guests get a bird’s-eye view of the country’s epic backstory, from the construction of King John’s Castle through broken treaties to the tidy town planning of the Georgian grid – the streets and avenues that criss-cross each other on the other side of the river.

The hotel’s restaurant captures the same views, but if you want to dine within a stone’s throw of the river with the reflection of King John’s Castle rippling on the water, take the brief stroll to the Curragower Restaurant and Bar, close to the historical Treaty Stone. The food is as good as the view.

Rooms from €179. strandhotellimerick.ie

Crookhaven Lighthouse

Mizen Head, Co Cork

Just 10 minutes from Mizen Head, Ireland’s most southwesterly point, Crookhaven Lighthouse has the ultimate room with a view – a light-filled dual-aspect expanse of glass that overlooks West Cork’s magnificent, jagged coastline. The accommodation is spread over two quarters which includes the original 19th century lightkeeper’s cottage, with four bedrooms in total. Downstairs has the bedroom and living quarters, while upstairs, accessible through a study, is a remodelled large screen living space designed to savour the Atlantic swell pounding the shoreline below.

In the Long House, a theatre of light spreads across walls like a giant Monet painting with an ever-changing view as the seasons change with the ocean’s mood. It’s a paragon of modern Irish architecture with sliding doors that open out on to a terrace to fully embrace the scene. A short distance away are the sandy dunes of Barley Cove, or in Crookhaven, O’Sullivan’s Bar has offered hospitality since 1933.

Four nights in shoulder season is €1,750. crookhavenlighthouse.ie

Cashel Palace Hotel

Co Tipperary

The Palace Hotel frames one of Ireland’s most ancient, iconic buildings, the Rock of Cashel, through its white-framed sash bedroom windows. Standing on a massive outcrop at the edge of town, the outlook on to this hugely significant fortress of kings is spectacular from the hotel’s main house’s Rock view suite or Rock view deluxe room. The hotel is a landmark building in its own right, with its instantly recognisable Flemish bond red brick and carved limestone detail.

The Palace Hotel is set back from the Main Street of one of Ireland’s prettiest towns and decorated with restrained elegance in keeping with the Palladian architecture. Many rooms offer garden settings. Book Chez Hans, a restaurant set in a Gothic church just five minutes from the hotel for an unforgettable view and fine dining.

Rooms from €329 including breakfast. cashelpalacehotel.ie

Monks

Ballyvaughan, Co Clare

North Clare’s landmark pub and restaurant will always be known for its seafood chowder and mussels, but these days it’s the sweeping views across Galway Bay and the smooth silver landscape of the Burren from its new, beautifully turned out bedrooms and apartments that’s gaining traction. All windows take advantage of the unique pier-side setting or rural backdrop, but it’s the sea view king room that captures the full shebang.

Downstairs, look for a table by the fireplace or the intimate north-facing window seat just before the sun sets over Galway Bay. If the night is mild, take a stroll to O’Lochlainn’s Bar in the village for arguably the best collection of whiskey in the country. If the night is wild, hunker down and enjoy the Atlantic view.

Rooms from €155 including breakfast. monks.ie

Glenstal Abbey

Murroe, Co Limerick

Talking of monks, the Benedictine order know a thing or two about hospitality; even before Br Dom Pierre Pérignon first put the sparkle into champagne at the abbey of Hautvillers back in 1697. Glenstal Abbey, a quiet retreat on the Tipperary/Limerick border, doesn’t offer premier champagne, but the views from its guestrooms are heavenly. The guest house’s uncluttered quarters overlook the little church, courtyard and lush, ripe woods. The forest huts (or God Pods) are cloistered by a thicket and face down the rolling hillside on to the monastery’s fertile 500 acres. This bucolic setting is the very essence of Keats’s season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.

In the abbey’s vast grounds, guests can ramble through gardens or over the river’s little arched bridge. Stop by to hear the monks’ world-famous Gregorian chanting, or hike over the pastures to discover the cascades that roar through the Clare Glens. There is a shop on site which stocks seasonal jams produced by the monks from the gardens.

Rooms €110 including breakfast; God Pods €500 per week. glenstal.com

Termon House

Dungloe, Co Donegal

The Irish Landmark Trust operates this sublime traditional Georgian whitewashed farmhouse with its enormous sliding sash windows that have overlooked the craggy Donegal coastline and deep blue waters of the Atlantic for more than a quarter of a millennium. Pull them up and hear the waves crashing on the rocky beach below. Three bedrooms upstairs sleep six guests, while the living area has an open fireplace to cast away the shadows and enjoy the silence broken only by the sound of wind and the ocean or the opening of a bottle of wine.

The property is set on three acres with a dry stone wall constructed during the Famine in the 19th century and evidence of dwellings on site going back to the Middle Ages. As one of the most northerly viewpoints along the Wild Atlantic Way, expect to discover sandy beaches, blowholes and sea arches nearby – and for provisions, the small village of Maghery is just 2km away.

From €581 for two nights. Dogs welcome. irishlandmark.com