Three of Ireland’s top 100 places to stay are in Westmeath, according to the newly launched 2009 Bridgestone Guide.
Temple in Moate, Lough Bishop House in Collinstown, and Wineport Lodge in Glasson are all rated highly by food writers John and Sally McKenna in the Bridgestone 100 Best Places to Stay in Ireland 2009.
The Westmeath establishments are the same three entries that made the top 100 list in 2008.
Temple makes the grade this year as one of Ireland’s ‘Hottest Places’ to stay, while Wineport Lodge is cited as one of the top 10 ‘Places to bring the Golf Clubs’.
The Guide also features the top 10 places for romance, places with great breakfasts, places to get away from it all, and places for walking, great views, and near great surf.
Unfortunately though, no Westmeath restaurants are featured in the Bridgestone 100 Best Restaurants in Ireland 2009, which has also just been published.
Meanwhile, speaking at the launch of the 2009 Guides, Bridgestone Guide author John McKenna predicted that hotels in Ireland are set to close at a rate of one a week this year, but that the recession will not affect the restaurant business.
“For more than a decade, we have littered the country with preposterously large, impersonal, international-style, unsustainable hotels. These reflect the energy and money we have squandered in Ireland as they reveal the absurd short-sightedness of an economy drunk on the lure of money. Many of these self-same establishments are already experiencing difficulties. This recession will kill a significant amount of these monoliths stone dead. I estimate we will see one hotel close each week - comparable to the one a week which opened up over the past number of years.”
On the positive side, however, he commented; “One of the most welcome developments in Irish hospitality is that the age of the gardener-chef axis, that key collaboration to the success of any kitchen, is back with a bang. It’s all about shortening supply lines, conserving energy, saving the planet, and ensuring you get the finest vegetables on your plate. In an age when we all should be growing some of our own food, the best places to stay in Ireland are already on the ball.”
Mr McKenna added that the best Irish restaurants will sail through the recession. “The reality is that the best restaurants are recession-proof. The change in our lifestyle, most fundamentally the fact that we drink now in restaurants and less and less often in pubs, means that pubs will be decimated by the recession, a process already underway. Our pub culture is dying, whilst our restaurant culture is thriving.”
The ‘Bridgestone 100 Best’ Guides are published by Estragon Press, and cost €10 each. For further information, log onto www.bridgestoneguides.com
