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The Sunday
Times, December 2003
'It’s love at first night – the hotels that won our hearts'
20 properties were selected throughout the British Isles with only one
other property selected in Ireland – Dromoland Castle
Ballyvolane House, Co. Cork
Ballyvolane doesn’t feel in the least like a hotel:
it is a beautiful Georgian pile that still inhabits
a tweedy Anglo-Irish world of charm and not a little
eccentricity. The rooms are gorgeous and you feel they
were exactly like this before Ballyvolane’s delightful
owners, Jeremy & Merrie Green, opened them to guests.
In such an old-fashioned world, you might expect rather
dour fare. Not a bit of it. The food is sophisticated
and first-rate.
Tip: Ballyvolane has some magnificent antique baths; ask for a room with
one of the grander models. Keep a look out when you’re out walking:
somewhere in the grounds, the family treasure, stolen by the maid and
the butler in 1730, is buried.
The Cork Blackwater, the best salmon river in Ireland,
is just 20 minutes from the house.
Stanley Stewart. |
John &
Sally McKenna’s The Bridgestone Guides
- 100 Best Places to Stay in Ireland 2006
Ballyvolane House
“Justin and Jenny Green serve us rhubarb martinis in front of a
log fire in the drawing room before showing us the way to a communal table
flashing with cut glass and polished silver. So this is what it is like
to live like a Lord!”
That was the writer Howard Jacobson’s reaction to a dinner at Ballyvolane,
which he describes in New York’s Food & Wine Magazine. Mr Jacobson
praised the “decadent” Jerusalem artichoke soup, and the turbot
with salsa verde, and, with typical acuity, noted that Ballyvolane experience
is “conceived and put together with a boldness that can only come
from someone who has knocked around the work a bit”. Indeed, the
Greens have blue-chip global experience behind them, and they have used
it to animate Ballyvolane to the heights. This is one of the great country
houses, and it offers one of the greatest country house experiences. And,
best of all, Justin and Jenny have only just started – there are
exciting plans afoot.
www.bestofbridgestone.com
|
Karen Browns'
Ireland - Charming Inns & Itineraries
Ballyvolane House
Ballyvolane is a great Irish country house. Set a few miles from Fermoy
it’s a perfect place for sightseeing between Waterford and Kinsale,
Cashel to Lismore. It is beautiful at night when the long mahogany table
is set with flickering candles and you enjoy drinks by the fire in the
grand pillared hallway. It is lovely on a warm morning as you wander through
the gardens or whack some croquet balls on the lawn. It’s one of
those houses that makes you feel happy just thinking about having stayed
there. It’s a friendly, happy house where guests wander in and out
of the kitchen, a vast tall-ceilinged room that was once a drawing room.
It is welcoming because Justin and Jenny Green suffuse it with their young
energy, their charm and friendliness. They have big footsteps to fill
following Justin’s parents, Merrie and Jeremy, who set the tone
of fun and enjoyment in the house. Bedrooms are roomy, stylish and furnished
with antiques. One has a bath so deep that you have to step up to get
into it. Within a radius of a few kilometers there are 20 golf courses
and within an hour’s drive are Blarney, with its famous castle,
Cork city, and the bustling boating town of Kinsale. A self-catering cottage
is also available.
www.karenbrown.com
|
PRUDENCE
MAGAZINE January/February 2006
6 OF THE MOST ROMANTIC HOTELS IN EUROPE
WHY? Justin and Jenny Green used to run Babington House, England’s
top boutique hotel and celeb magnet. Now they have turned their considerable
talents – not to mention style – to Justin’s family
home in Co. Cork, Ballyvolane House. The results? One of the best country
houses in Ireland.
BEST ROOM FOR ROMANCE: Book into Roland’s Room, a large, south-facing
double with views over the beautiful gardens. It has a lovely ensuite
with an antique mahogany bath that’s so deep it has steps up to
it; perfect for two.
TABLE FOR TWO: Dinner at Ballyvolane is a long leisurely four-course affair
around a communal table in the Green’s dining room. Lovers can request
a table of their own, or if you’re the gregarious type, bond with
other cooing couple at the main table. The food is amazing: all ingredients
are carefully sourced from the family’s walled garden or from local
specialist producers. Expect country house cooking at it’s best
with delicious roasts, stews, nursery school puddings and West & East
Cork cheeses. Justin knows a thing or two about wine, so don’t be
afraid to ask for some help with the already very accessible wine list.
WHERE TO SAY I LOVE YOU: The gardens at Ballyvolane were first built in
the early party of the 18th century and continue to be a labour of love
for the Green family who restored the lakes on the grounds over five years
ago. Lovers will find plenty of perfect spots for love declarations in
the pretty walled garden, the woods – wonderful in June when the
bluebells are out – or down by the lakes.
www.prudence.ie |
Alistair
Sawday's 'Special places to stay', Ireland Edition.
Ballyvolane House
A most excellent house. Set in an idyllic private estate, Ballyvolane
is one of Ireland’s great old houses – with owners to match:
lovely Anglo-Irish aplomb, great enthusiasm, charm incarnate. Justin and
Jenny has taken over and are following in his parents’ footsteps
while Jeremy keeps a handle on fishing and the garden. The house was built
in 1728 then remodelled in the Italianate style. The pillared hall with
its fine ceilings, crackling fire and wonderful furniture has a Bluthner
baby grand which guests are welcome to play. Egyptian lucifers stand attendant
as guests dine at the baronial table, sparkling with the best silverware.
It’s a real feast. Bedrooms lie off a long narrow corridor: all
are different with huge beds – turned down before bedtime –
antique furniture, armchairs, thick carpets, maybe an early 19-century
bath and tall windows onto formal terraced gardens. Wander through woodland,
sit by restored trout lakes, hone your croquet skills, or fish for salmon
on their six-mile stretch of the River Blackwater. The Greens justly deserve
their reputation, they do it marvellous well.
www.sawdays.co.uk |
The 2004
Megabytes Awards
Destination Address of the Year: Ballyvolane, Fermoy, North Cork
There is new blood in some of Ireland's great country houses, but nowhere
is just quite as dynamic as beautiful Ballyvolane, where Justin and Jenny
Green have taken over the great mantle bestowed by Justin's parents and
have hit the ground running with amazing food, great service, and a super-charged
energy. This pair have terrific ideas and plans for the future, so things
at Ballyvolane are only beginning. Hot, hot, hot.
www.bestofbridgestone.com |
The Dubliner
Magazine, May 2005
50 BEST PLACES TO STAY IN IRELAND 2005 BY GEORGINA CAMPBELL & TREVOR
WHITE
BALLYVOLANE HOUSE
The Green family’s gracious mansion is surrounded by its own farmland,
magnificent wooded grounds, a recently restored trout lake and formal
terraced gardens, all carefully managed and well maintained. The lovely
19th-century Italianate house is elegantly furnished and extremely comfortable,
with central heating and big log fires. All bedrooms are roomy, furtnished
with family antiques and look out over attractive garden and grounds.
There is private salmon fishing on 8km of the renowned River Blackwater-
and delicious food is a high point at Ballyvolane, where memorable Irish
dinner are served in style around a long mahogany table. There is much
of interest in the area, including the beautiful Balckwater Valley, Lismore,
the Rock of Cashel and Waterford Crystal. The standard of hospitality,
comfort and food is exceptional, making this an excellent base for a peaceful
and very relaxing break.
www.thedubliner.ie |
THE GOOD
HOTEL GUIDE 2006
'Ballyvolane is not a B&B, guesthouse or hotel, it is a family heritage
home,' writes Justin Green. After an international career in hotel-keeping
(most recently as manager of Babington House in Somerset (qv), he has
returned with his Scottish wife, Jenny, and their two young children,
to succeed his parents in the running of their Georgian house in the Blackwater
valley. This year a reader 'liked it very much', finding the Greens 'friendly,
low key, relaxed', and the place 'magnificently run'. Our inspector was
equally charmed: 'We were most warmly welcomed, and given a tour of the
house. The elegantly furnished public rooms are a delight. Our bedroom
was large and comfortable; others, each furnished differently, were as
attractive.' Front rooms look on to parkland; those at the rear face the
garden and croquet lawn. Some have a fine antique bath; one has an adjacent
private bathroom. Two bedrooms and three bathrooms have been refurbished;
three more rooms in a stable block are planned for 2006. Dinner is 'generally
taken with other guests at the main dining table' but two separate tables
are available. Lorraine McSweeney, the chef, uses local ingredients, including
organic vegetables from the walled garden, in her 'country house-style'
cooking. 'Delicious smoked salmon; the finest pork with seasonal vegetables
and superb roast potatoes. Pudding was a mélange of cheesecake,
fresh blueberries and ice cream. An interesting, eclectic wine list.'
Breakfast is served at any time before noon. There are three trout lakes
in the grounds, and Ballyvolane has six miles of private fishing on the
Blackwater, the best Salmon River in Ireland. (Carol Heaton, and others)
|
FODORS
With Georgian splendor in the terrra-cotta, gilded, and black Italianate
pillared hall (complete with Bluthner baby grand) and Regency coziness
nonpareil in the daffodil yellow sitting room (fittingly hung with a bouquet
of prints and engravings), Ballyvolane offers a setting as elegant as
it is charming. Although this 1728 stone house looks imposing, life here
unfolds with country-house informality. That is because this house is
a home to two generations of the Greene family, with the owners' son,
Justin, and his wife, Jenny, now acting as hosts. Expect to find old fishing
gear and walking sticks lying about and the family dog greeting your return.
The spacious bedrooms are beautifully decorated with a rich assortment
of antiques and heirlooms, but also display an unpredictable sense of
humor -- the tub in Roland's Room, in full view of all (on a wooden pedestal
perched to give a garden view), always raises a smile. The guest rooms
look out onto wonderful gardens, including a bluebell wood (early June)
and a fairy-tale walled flower garden, with a 100-acre dairy farm beyond.
Dinner is served at a large table in the formal dining room, with family
silver set on white linens.
www.fodors.com |
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