Ballybunion 'eyesore' to go under the hammer

The Golf Hotel has been closed since 2016 and many residents are keen to see it demolished entirely

The hotel. Wish you weren't here: the Ballybunion Golf Hotel, an unpopular eyesore in the north Kerry holiday resort going under the hammer on July 23. Picture: Neil Michael

Standing at five storeys, it’s hardly one of Ireland’s tallest buildings.

But to residents of Ballybunion, it is five storeys too many and should never have been built in the first place.

Looming high over the mix of Victorian and Edwardian-era town houses below it on the north Kerry beach resort’s Main Street, the Golf Hotel has all the charm of an inner-city office block.

Closed since 2016, its redundancy has made this architectural blot on the surrounding landscape even harder to bear.

To this day, there are those who still wonder how the hotel – which you can see from Loop Head across the bay in Co Clare – ever managed to be built.

Its fortunes, however, may well be about to change.

From 8am Friday morning, the hotel – Lot 63 – will be one of the properties being sold by joint agents Dublin-based BDX1 and Tralee-based Gary O' Driscoll & Co. Picture: Neil Michael.

From 8am Friday morning, the hotel – Lot 63 – will be one of the properties being sold by joint agents Dublin-based BDX1 and Tralee-based Gary O' Driscoll & Co.

Tom Mulvihill, who runs Danna’s shop next door to the hotel, thinks it could be a great remote hub for employees of tech giants.

This is just me thinking outside the box but someone should be knocking on Google’s door and telling them this might be a great place for a remote working hub.” 

“It would make a good office block.”

There are others, however, who are not quite so sure it would make another hotel, let alone a remote hub for international corporations.

Looming high over the mix of Victorian and Edwardian-era town houses below it on the north Kerry beach resort’s Main Street, the Golf Hotel has all the charm of an inner-city office block. Picture: Neil Michael

“It is an eyesore in the middle of the town,” said local Sinn Féin councillor Robert Beasley.

“When the place was busy and the hotel itself was busy, we didn’t pay that much attention to it.

“But now that it is redundant and empty, it’s very unsightly and there seems to be little interest in anything happening with it.”

He recently spoke to a man who said he’d like to buy it and demolish it.