Rosleague Manor Hotel

04/07/2026

04/07/2026

We hosted some Ladies from Carrig Donn recently for a photo shoot and had agreed an auld Quid pro quo on some images.

To be honest I was half hoping the all female cast might require some rough around the edges , showing signs of Patina, male model goodness .
So I hung around all morning which Lorna will assure you is not the norm.
I even re-appeared early afternoon with an alternative look featuring copius amounts of sawdust and a fetching pair of chaps.....only to discover they'd all fallen in love with the dog version of Robert Redford - sure I'd no chance , that fe**er looks handsome whatever the angle or mood!

Thank you ladies for sharing the pics!

16/06/2026

I mentioned in an earlier post that the Fox Gloves were lookin promising, well holy god was that an understatement - they're putting on an awesome display and most encouragingly they've popped up in waves right beneath the massive holes in the canopy left by our old friend, Storm Ewoyn.
The tallest one next to Jono is well over 8 ft!
With each passing day and rambles through the forest with Jono, its becoming more & more evident that these once in a generation storms are a crucial part or Mother Natures cycle, clearing out the dead, diseased natives & Evergreens stealing all the light.

Some of these must have been in a kind of stasis, because neither Dermot nor I had seen them before & whats really cool is I can see exactly the same response where I cleared some of our adjoining Coillte planted
Sitka Spruce to re-instate a fire break, all the trees nearby with new leaf, ferns & mushrooms popping up, where previously there was only layers of bloody pine needles.

Love the juxdaposition of the massive 3-4Ft stump that nearly wiped out meself (Saw) & Eugene Barry (Digger) in tandem, trying to disentangle it from the trees it hung up in V's these delicate beauty's - another pay off from all the necessary destruction.

Growth of natives planted in the main forest is off the hook, some Wagon remarked a few years back that it was very 'open', like you can see through it..... I bit my tongue knowing time, determination & perseverance were on my side - well not anymore my dear.

40 years ago when it was thick with evergreens & Rhody, as kids we christened it the Deep Dark Forest, its getting quite dark again in there, which is massively encouraging!

04/06/2026

I decided the pretty shabby outdoor furniture was looooong overdue replacement. I've tried the full suite at this stage from varnished to oiled imported timber, rattan, fake rattan etc etc and none of it stands up to more than a few seasons.

Pulled the trigger on some of that heavy, hard wearing recycled plastic gear that you can just blast with the Powerhose every 6 months to be as good as new.

It may not blow around in the wind or fall apart or rust, but it also ain't exactly what you would call pretty .
So I figured I better add some kind of 'functional art' to draw the eye away, given their location front & centre of this old house .

One of those sped up , 'How make a table with a chainsaw in 45 seconds' shorts popped up in my feed and as is my want these days , I figured I could have a go and maybe even do better with some Giant Cyprus/Cedar stumpy logs I had left over from the milling.

These along with 7 truckloads of timber had been gifted to me by Cian & Loretto Mcloughlin, who's front Garden was CPO'd by Galway CC, so a massive thanks to them.
I initially thought I'd made a huge mistake and would just end up burning half of it...... but I've made lean too's , tables, ramps for cars, huge steps, 'woodery's' , the beginnings of an extension to our House & even a table out of my own native stuff to thank Loretto for the gift that keeps on giving!

The aim was to beat the leadtime for the plastic stuff which was 4-6 weeks, which seemed ambitious given I'm supposed to be running a fairly full hotel ..... but whattayaknow as above - I have great help so beat the deadline by a couple of weeks and have the makings in a couple of more tables & bits in the cut outs!

I may well forever retire from sanding and delegate that part of the process out to the Nephew from here on.
There was a ridiulous , mind bending , arm aching & cramping amount & then there was the midges...... which meant not only was I taking in copious amounts of sawdust with a soupson of epoxy shavings, I was also doing most of the work adjacent to a large outdoor firepit, as I'll take the smoke over the midges all day and twice on Sundays!

30/05/2026

I was chatting with my good friend , the ever wise beyond his years Shane Young the other day.
About how blessed I was feeling reflecting on the crew we've opened with this year and that it may be the best in 28 years of re-re-awakening the old Girl.
However I was finding it hard to enjoy it , as I was afraid something would come out of left field to mess it all up..... Well he says , whats the point in suffering through the tough times, if you can't enjoy the good times when they arrive!

As everyone with any connection to the trade is well aware , the last 5+ years have been the toughest to recruit for the kitchen team and it hasn't gotten much easier.
Yet here I am with unquestionably the best Kitchen team we've had in all my years & like all the best teams - they've had a few seasons together to fine tune their game.
Thanks to Shane, I'm determined to try and enjoy it.

Luckily I'm reminded by our Guests on a daily basis during Breakfast & Dinner service as well as checkout, but the real gifts are in the lack of constant stress, along with having the confidence to take some time away with the kids or messing around with the chainsaws on the latest projects - more to follow on that!

So a big thank you to the team and also to all our loyal guests for their kind words and to the likes of John Healy and many other regulars who scoffed and were rightfully horrified at the idea we would move to 6 nights a week permanently when recruitment was particularly challenging...

It taught me a very important & liberating lesson, that the food at Rosleague is far more important than I or even Jono will ever be, so I no longer stress or feel guilty about taking an evening off!

11/05/2026

I always loved an auld Quid Pro Quo deal and in these tricky times, its more welcome than ever. As you've all seen on here my photography skillz are seriously lacking, so when I got chatting to Chloe from www.theawakenedlens.com & her mom at checkout and she mentioned she'd taken a few pics if I wanted to have a look....and a deal was done!

A real eye for the many details here that I perhaps take for granted and a willingness to embrace shadow and darker shades that most seem to avoid or try to enhance.

03/05/2026

This is normally the prettiest time of year in the Garden & with everything a bit late after the soggy Spring, there is some wonderful overlapping going on between the fresh lime green Beech leaves, Blue Bells & Wild Garlic gone mental, cultivated Rhody's coming into their best and what looks like a bumper crop of biennial Fox Gloves starting to emerge. The mossy paths & walks across the headland await!

The pic of the wild garlic is especially encouraging as its an area where we cleared a football pitch sized area of 30ft invasive Rhody about 7-8 years ago and as always with that blight, the ground underneath was totally lifeless at the time. Spent many hours over the intervening years keeping the rushes& Gunera at bay and was rewarded with a carpet of White when I went to check it the other day.

The last pic is of a perfectly formed little whip of a tree we planted a little over a month ago, one of over 1000 that seem to be loving the mix of very damp soil, newly formed gaps in the top canopy and of late more blue skies and sun.

As always Mother Nature just needs a helping hand from time to time and you shall be showered with a trifecta of rewards - visual, soul and plate!

16/04/2026

The Law of Unintended Consequences..... can be painful, costly, infuriating ..... but also the Mother of Invention!
Having spent good money after bad many times in the early years, I've learnt that the best approach is go big or go home!
And if the right thing to do is dig floors or knock walls , then have at it.

So for the new bathroom featured recently , I wanted to relocate things and add a walkin shower.
Made a lovely plan & layout that this wonderful old House decided to tear up.
Yes Mark you can have the shower in that corner but the only way it's feasible is if you rip out the entire floor, cut joists and all , run them the other way etc etc.
But on reflection you can't do that because it would mean tearing down the ceiling in the whole entrance hall below....
Your only alternative is to demolish a fair bit of the 200+ year old stone wall and run the waste through that , then rebuild and repoint with lime mortar etc- make it so fellas!

Plastered the walls pre tiling.... well that ceiling could come down anyday now so while we're in here.....carry on.
All that expensive insulation you pumped into the attic came down too....ok insulated plasterboard it is and redo all the cornicing, ceiling rose etc

Final touches now, you know how the toilet is now in the middle of that wall, well there's nowhere to put the toilet roll holder.

Ok....here's one we found online - thats as ugly as sin and will be flittered in no time - go have a look yourself so.

Now I like Etsy for some stuff , so had a look at the selection from €100-250 - I KNOW I can do better than that for a lot less.

Out to the garden, dig out the copper we ripped out of the floor of the very same bathroom, absolute quality - pipe and fittings of a thickness and resilience we can only dream of these days .
The harder I hit it with wire brush, pads and cloth - the better it looked.
Now where's that weird triangle piece of spalted beech I randomly saved a couple of years ago, bit of sanding, add some danish oil/yacht varnish & spirits special mix - Jobs a goddun😆

11/04/2026

I asked Jono for a sad face and while its not in his nature, he did his best.....Cancellations - We rarely ever charge when life or illness gets in the way, but just to reassure folk that given the current issues and uncertainty, we will not charge for any rooms cancelled, even on the day & including bookings made through third parties like bookings.com. There is enough anger, division & fear on the internet already, so please keep any comments to how handsome Jono is or to happier times in the past or yet to be experienced!