The site of one of Europe’s once-great Roman/Turkish baths and hydrotherapy complexes, the Hydro in Tower, Blarney — near the world-renowned Blarney Castle which attracts nearly 500,000 visitors a year — has been earmarked for a €35m nursing home and associated house development.

Blarney was the unlikely spot for the first Roman-Irish bathhouse, says Hugh Carey

Rose Martin reports on St Anne’s Hydro which has a rich history.