Features

Country life

1 Jun 2007 by business traveller

Don't look down, just look straight ahead, you're doing fine," shouts my instructor. I laugh nervously and bite my tongue; it's easy for him to say. His feet are on solid ground around 40ft below me. My feet are wobbling on a wire tightrope, stretched between two trees, my legs shaking as I desperately reach for the next support rope dangling just out of reach of my trembling hands.

I am taking part in one of Ireland Xtreme's activities aimed at building trust, confidence and leadership skills. The high ropes are just one of the activities the company offers in the grounds of Carton House, 14 miles from Dublin. I spend the afternoon hurtling down a double zip-wire over tall ferocious-looking nettles and negotiating a deeply rutted four-wheel-drive course in a Land Rover Defender.

After the excitement of the afternoon I take the short walk back to the grand house. The original house at Carton was built around 1603 by the Earl of Tyrconnell. In 1739 the house was redesigned for Robert Fitzgerald, the 19th Earl of Kildare, by Richard Cassels, a well-known architect in Ireland responsible for other grand houses such as Hazelwood in County Sligo, and Westport in County Mayo. And last November, after an €80 million extension and refurbishment, Carton reopened as a luxury hotel. The 1,100-acre estate is now open to the public and with its two championship golf courses, the parkland O'Meara course and the tough and wild Montgomery course, is home to the Golfing Union of Ireland.

I head for the Linden Tree restaurant which, with its modern interior and contemporary Irish cuisine, links the old part of the house with the new. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the grounds, the ancient trees bowing with the weight of history. Turn right out of the restaurant and you enter the new part of the house with its 147 contemporary rooms. Black and white photos of the old house line the curved corridors, which lead to the conference section of the hotel. There are 14 meeting rooms and the Carton Suite, with a capacity for 600 people (the fibre-optic chandeliers are ingenious). Down another corridor, in the old stables is the Molton Brown Spa, with seven treatment rooms.

Turning left out of the restaurant, through the Courtyard Lounge with its modern art, including a huge original chandelier base mounted on the wall, brings you to the old house. The Duke of Leinster (Robert Fitzgerald's son) and his family lived here and I pad softly across the uneven wooden floors until I reach a small square room with bells hanging silently near the ceiling. The servants of the house used to sit and wait here until their particular bell rang for service, before rushing off through the maze of corridors.

I spy a corridor on the left and turn the handle of a large door: it's the Gold Saloon (pictured above right). In 1739 Robert Fitzgerald and his wife Lady Mary O'Brien commissioned the La Franchini brothers to create a "sumptuous display of their skills in figurative Stuccowork". I stand mesmerised by the gold-leaf ceiling, where intricate French and Spanish engravings feature Homer, Sophocles and Ovid surrounded by cherubs. Outside a golf buggy whirrs past.

I pass the library, a dining room, the Chinese bedroom with its rare wall paper from 1759 and finally go up a twist of stairs to the Duke's suite. One of 18 fully restored suites in the original house, the view across the sloping green lawns to Tyrconnell Tower is a protected vista. The elegant light blue sitting room is typical of Carton; there are three funky black angular deer heads opposite pop art portraits of the Duke and I am torn between lying on the sofa with a cup of tea, silk curtains rustling in the breeze, or putting on the DVD sound system and flatscreen television. The line between past and present is blurred here; beautifully restored rooms live with contemporary airy design, country walks and fishing with golf or the spa and, if it suits your constitution, dangling on a thread of time, from the treetops. n

FACT BOX

  • Deluxe room from Eur 200 weekday or from €250 weekend (for a on-night-stay in mid-July). Junior suites with breakfast and dinner fro €350 weekday and €400 weekend. Tel +353 1 505 2000, cartonhouse.com
  • Ireland Xtreme's teambuilding packages: see ireland extreme.ie or call +353 1 862 2000
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