A new €70 million luxury hotel and golf course project which will create some 300 jobs in east Cork was welcomed yesterday by the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O'Donoghue, as a major boost to the tourism infrastructure of the Cork-Kerry region.
The project on a 220-acre site at the former Carmelite College in Castletmartyr involves the conservation of a historic manor house which was once owned by Sir Walter Raleigh and later by the Great Earl of Cork, Richard Boyle.
Particular attention was paid during the conservation to the restoration of the house's ballroom ceiling which features delicate rococo plasterwork. It was described by the 18th century English travel chronicler, Arthur Young, as "the best room" in Ireland.
Mr O'Donoghue said the Castlemartyr Resort and Club was one of the most significant tourism projects to be undertaken in the region in recent years and he paid tribute to Cork developer John F Supple Ltd for their sensitive restoration of the manor house.
The project comprises a hotel, spa, golf lodges, mews development as well as an 18-hole golf course designed by Ron Kirby who has designed courses at Mount Juliet in Co Kilkenny, Dromoland Castle in Co Clare and the Old Head of Kinsale in Co Cork.
According to Supple, the hotel will open this December and will feature 104 large suites, including 10 in the manor house.
The project will also include a 15,000 square metre spa and leisure complex, while the golf course will be available in summer 2007.
The project will also include 10 luxury mews developments in the grounds of the estate as well as 42 golf lodges which will be on sale from €595,000 to 635,000, located within the walled garden, said a company spokesman.
The entire estate was owned by the Carmelite order which ran a boarding school for boys there between 1929 and 1996 when it closed and was put on the market and purchased by John F Supple Ltd.
According to a company spokesman, the project is in line with "the Cork Area Strategic Plan which sees economic and residential development concentrating in a number of designated areas including East Cork to be served by appropriate road and rail infrastructure".
Iarnród Éireann has already given a commitment to reopen the Cork-Midleton rail line while business and civic leaders in Youghal have been campaigning for the reopening of the Youghal line, which would pass near Castlemartyr.
According to the spokesman, the company will retain ownership of the hotel but it will be operated by Capella Hotels and Resorts, a US-based hotel resort group headed by former president of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Horst Schulz.