County tees up for golf resort boom

TYPICAL. You wait for years for a tourism project like a five-star hotel and golf course, holiday lodges dotted along the fairways, plus a spa...and then two come along almost at once.

The €70 million Castlmartyr Resort and Golf Club, under construction, was launched yesterday in east Cork by Tourism Minister John O’Donoghue, with the 104-bed hotel due to be open by year’s end at the east Cork village estate. It will be followed by a Ron Kirby-designed golf course in summer 2007.

But, in a coincidental twist, the new five-star Sheraton Fota Island Golf Resort and Spa opens officially today for hotel guest business, as part of a massive e140m investment by the Fleming Group.