Hotel of the year embarks on major €€6m expansion

FOLLOWING news that Sheen Falls Lodge in Kenmare has been awarded the AA Hotel of the Year, the privately owned country house hotel has announced an expansion programme that will increase its capacity into 2003 and beyond.

A €6 million investment will see the development of five new luxury rooms, including a Presidential Suite and four exclusive private homes for short-term private rental.

The first phase of the expansion has commenced and will be completed in May 2003 while the second development phase will commence in autumn 2003. Famous for its stunning location beside the Sheen waterfalls, Sheen Falls Lodge is an extremely popular luxurious hotel frequented by Irish and foreign visitors The hotel currently offers guests a choice of 61 spacious and luxurious rooms including eight junior suites and nine suites, along with the popular Little Hay Cottage, which is available for private rental. Restaurants include the AA award winning La Cascade restaurant and the slightly more informal Oscar’s Bistro.

Other amenities include conference facilities, library, billiard room, wine cellar and a health and fitness spa. Sheen Falls Lodge general manager, Adriaan Bartels, remarked: "We are delighted to be awarded the most prestigious accolade in the hotel industry, the AA Hotel of the Year, which comes at a time when we are growing and developing our business. "This new expansion programme, which has just begun, will increase our capacity to offer even more luxury choice to our existing and new clients," he said. "We are entering an extremely busy period for Sheen Falls Lodge and the good news is that we are completely booked out for Christmas," Mr Bartels added.

Meanwjile, Oppermann Associates, a Dublin-based architects and interior design consultancy, has been appointed to design and build an exclusive €3.3 million spa facility at the Park Hotel in Kenmare. The project is currently awaiting planning permission and is scheduled to go on site in January 2003. Oppermann’s design team will work with Espa, the world-renowned spa consultants, to create this unique facility which is the first of its kind in Ireland. Commenting on the project, Michele Sweeney of Oppermann Associates said: "We’re very excited about this project, not only because it will be Ireland’s first but also because we won the contract through recommendation, which was very rewarding for the company."

"We wanted to create a facility where the experience begins upon entering the building and continues until one leaves and where everything will be done for the visitor, so the project has been very much designed with the end-user in mind," she added.

"Unlike other leisure facilities, the spa at the Park Hotel will not have any steam-filled pool areas, which tend to smell of chlorine, nor will children be permitted, so it really will offer the visitor an experience over and above the rest," Ms Sweeney remarked.

Materials such as dry stone walls and non-varnished timber cladding will be used to give a natural look and feel to the building, which takes full advantage of the exceptional site. Features of the facility will include an outdoor vitality pool with stunning views over Kenmare Bay, VIP treatment rooms, outdoor hot tubs set in woodland, water features throughout the facility, indoor and outdoor relaxation areas, taking full advantage of the forest setting and uperior Espa treatments The Park Hotel is a protected structure and the proposed building, which is set in woodland adjacent to the hotel, will be connected to the hotel by a new glazed link.