Opulent, but intimate

ARCHITECTURALLY, the Muckross Park Hotel is ever so strange.

From the main road, Apprentice star and Renault supremo Bill Cullen and Jackie Lavin’s hotel looks less five-star hotel and more cosy coach house. However, when you swing around to the main entrance it screams wannabe with its faux turret and an incongruous dolmen-style water feature that sits plonk in the middle of a circular LA-style valet collection point. However it’s what happens inside a hotel that really matters and in the area that matters most — service — the hotel nailed it.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS