New take on bathing delights as the Kingsley splashes out

Tommy Barker says new-look Kingsley has presidential suite ambitions.

A HOT tub outdoors on the roof balcony, big enough for a gang to share, or foaming stand-alone baths on a pedestal with a river view, mood lighting and tea-lights, powerful drenching rain-forest showers.....yes, truly, the ghost of the old outdoor Lee Baths has been banished, vanquished, submerged.

The hot and cold running features of the 131-bed hotel, opened in 1998 and, redesigned for the noughties, replaced the legendary Lee Baths or Lee Pool.

The old baths, a sprawling outdoor and unheated swimming pool with rudimentary concrete finishes and perilous diving board, opened up in 1934, but its business had literally dried up by the early 1980s.

Step in the Kingsley Hotel, a decade or so later, and now there has been a further 30 million investment as the hotel comes up to its own 10th anniversary. As a consequence, the Lee Baths which sat in the shadow of County Hall has faded further into chilly memory.

Being part of the great unwashed isn’t an option now either in the Kingsley Hotel, Mark 11.

The original hotel, which came about in time for the Tour de France’s visit to Cork, was already old-fashioned and pretty much unlovely to look at, even at the time of its opening: now, it has had the full cosmetic surgery make-over, with years visibly peeled off it.

Its bar and restaurant now look out more on the River Lee and the wonders of the weirs directly to the north, while the design-award winning Lifetime Lab, a smart conversion of the old Victorian waterworks building, also hoves fully into view.

The extra investment has brought the Kingsley to five-star standard, joining Hayfield Manor in this category, while in east Cork the new Capella Castlemartyr Hotel is also in this upper echelon category.

Like the Capella hotel in the county, the Kingsley has pushed the metaphorical boat out in terms of providing a suite with ooomph: its Presidential Suite is a full 2,500 sq ft affair packed with creature comforts, over two floors, truly deserving of the title.

It has a security room just inside the front hall entrance, with CCTV cameras and a private den for gardaí, or private security for celebs, compared to the standard detail of having men on watch outside a penthouse door, very much de rigeur now in safety con6scious days, and with the country awash with cash and multi-millionaires.

This penthouse suite, formally called the McAleese Suite (with a removable plaque that switches to Ambassador’s Suite and other such nomenclatures when needs arise!) is a two-bed affair, with a sumptuous master bedroom suite, with dark walnut panelling on the walls, plus gas insert fireplace. There’s a four-poster bed, a double-ended bath in pride of place by an arched window that seems to float out over the views, and a bathroom to suit the most fastidious.

Then, there is a very large, party-sized, €20,000 hot-tub on a balcony for those keen on simmering in company. It would probably hold eight or 10 at a squeeze, while the formal dining room seats 12 persons in some silver service splendour. Food comes up via a special butler’s lift, after all guests paying €2,500 a night (negotiable on duration and time of year — there’s a US family booking in soon for a 10-day stint) are unlikely to be cooking their own full Irish fry-ups in the mornings. However, if Nigella or Gordon stays, there is a service kitchen....

There’s a large entertaining room with baby grand piano and gas fireplace, great views, plus a private library/bar for business meetings.

As luxury celebrity or presidential suites go, it is a home away from home, especially if you home is an Áras.