Connemara’s Lough Inagh Lodge has scooped gold for a second successive year at the prestigious Hotel & Catering Review Gold Medal Awards.
The charming country house hideaway, which is nestled on the shores of Lough Inagh, triumphed at the 24th Annual Gold Medal Awards this week, winning the hotly-contested Gold Medal Award for Best Country House, sponsored by Aon.
It was a back-to-back win for Lough Inagh, which won the Best Country House Award in 2011 and was also short-listed as a finalist in the 2010 Gold Medal Awards.
Sarah Grennan, editor of Hotel & Catering Review and chairperson of the Gold Medal Awards jury, says Lough Inagh Lodge has wowed the Gold Medal judges time and again. “Our gold medal jury can’t help but fall in love with Lough Inagh Lodge each time they visit. This cosy country house offers an idyllic base to escape from the rat race, with a charming team led by owner Maire O’Connor and general manager Dominic O’Morain, who impress with their naturally warm and friendly hospitality.
“We crowned Lough Inagh Ireland’s Best Country House in 2011 and we were so awed when we visited again this summer that we had to return the gold medal for a second successive year.”
Run by leading hospitality industry magazine, Hotel & Catering Review, and judged by an independent jury of experienced hospitality practitioners, the Gold Medal Awards are widely regarded as the most prestigious and coveted awards in the business. A total of 17 category awards were presented at this year's gala ceremony in Dublin’s Burlington Hotel, which was attended by 400 leading hoteliers, restaurateurs and caterers from across Ireland.
Running for 24 years, the Hotel & Catering Review Gold Medal Awards are intensely competitive, drawing entries from hundreds of hotel, restaurant, guesthouse, club, spa and catering businesses every year. Each entrant is rigorously assessed by members of the Gold Medal Awards jury who travelled over 20,000 kilometres across the island this summer to search for the Ireland’s greatest purveyors of hospitality.
