New hotel spa that goes beyond the exotic

Tommy Barker dips a toe into the luxury spa at Maryborough House.

IT is a long, long way from the ‘dew baths’ that former gardeners at Maryborough House would have taken on the lawns.

Dew baths are a traditional rural manner of washing, where people would roll in the grass and early morning dew, in their pelt, for an all-over wash. In Celtic Tiger Ireland dew baths are away with the fairies; spa resorts, leisure centres and pampering palaces are awash with cash.