‘I’m the hotel manager and I was a guest,’ says young Macroom Hotel manager about the Covid years

The Castle Hotel is an institution in Macroom, run by the Buckleys for 70 years, and Rory, the latest generation, was its sole occupant during the pandemic, he tells John O’Shea

The Castle Hotel in Macroom has been part of the fabric of the town for 70 years and Rory Buckley knows the building as manager and resident, having been its sole occupant during the pandemic.

In April of 1951, Dan and Maureen Buckley arrived in Macroom, when the hotel was called Ronan’s and had just 10 bedrooms. It now has 56 rooms and is much more substantial.

Buckley ownership is now in to the third generation, and they have been welcoming visitors to the traditional market town for seven decades.

The Castle Hotel provides Irish hospitality and a hotel bursting with character.

Following in their parents’ and grandparents’ footsteps, the Buckleys continue their proud family tradition of running the renowned hotel.

The current manager is Rory Buckley, who is the latest generation to run the Macroom institution.

“I worked in the hotel growing up, here and there, in the bar and doing bits and pieces,” Rory says.

“But never had a massive kind of interest in it.

“It was around the 30-years-of-age mark that I decided, ‘I am going to give this a go’,” Mr Buckley tells The Echo.

Outlining a typical week, Mr Buckley describes a variety of tasks and areas to oversee.

“I think the interesting thing about the hotel is it’s you kind of have four or five businesses rolled in to one,” Rory says.

“So, you have your bar and restaurant; we have the cafe down below. We have a leisure centre, which has around 1,000 members.

“We have a function room, which you’re doing everything from christenings to confirmations, communions, birthdays, funerals, and weddings. We have 56 bedrooms upstairs as well.

“For me, the most enjoyable part of it is there is so much involved; that it is very different every day.

“We have a great local trade built up, so it’s nice to have those local regulars, as well, that would be popping in for a drink and maybe watching the racing or the sports.

“Having the conversations with the customers and a lot of them would have nice memories, as well, of being served by my grandfather back in the day.

“It is called Dan Buckley’s Bar. So, it’s really nice to work in a place with so much family history attached to it.”

Having worked in the tech industry for several years, Mr Buckley took over as manager in March of 2020.

The opening few months of the job were during what was a very unprecedented time: The pandemic.

Mr Buckley recalls: 

“The hotel needs to be occupied all of the time, for insurance reasons. For the first three months here, I actually was staying, sleeping in the hotel in an empty hotel room.

“So, I got to know the building and everything fairly fast, walking around and checking the place.

“It was a strange, strange experience.

“The first year or two, really, were very stop-start, because you were opened, then you were closed, and then you were open again, but only with certain restrictions.

“Nothing was normal. I was trying to learn, but what you were learning was very different from the norm.

“Ever since then, it has been a lot more enjoyable. I won’t say the pressure is off, but it has been a much better experience, really, since post-covid.”

Mr Buckley, who has been a key player for the Macroom GAA Premier Intermediate football team for many years, provides a great insight to The Echo in to the life of a hotel manager at the Castle Hotel.

“Really, what you do every week is you look at what you have on, then try to be there, then, as much as possible at the busy times and when most of the stuff is happening. But, then, different weeks you would have different functions and things like that.

“Normally, what I try to do is be down in the hotel for around 10/11am or so. That time of the morning allows me to get a bit of work done.

“Lunchtime is busy, in that you get to meet a lot of the customers. You get good feedback from that and see what is working and what is not working.

“Between lunch and dinner can be a bit quieter, so I might be back in the office again, checking emails and all bits and pieces like that.

“Then, maybe from 7pm to 10pm in the evening, I will try to be behind the bar or out on the floor, because that is a busy time for people eating.”

The Castle Hotel is at the halfway point between Cork and Killarney, meaning guests are primely located to a number of tourist attractions and scenic walkways.

Despite the busy nature of the role, Mr Buckley adds it is important to find time for himself and to also switch off from his job for at least a short period of time.

“I am still playing football (with Macroom GAA), so I try a few evenings a week to get away early.

“You’d have training or the gym and that’s a great release, because the thing about a hotel is it’s 24/7 and never stops. Even during the night, with people working, you’ve night porters in and you have a lot of your guests sleeping, so things can still go wrong.

“The football is a great release, an hour or two where you don’t have the phone and nobody can contact you, where you are with your friends and exercising. That is very important to get that time away.

“Having the gym and the pool here in the hotel is great as well, that if I have a quiet half an hour or something, I can pop down and do a bit of exercise and listen to a podcast.

“It just helps to keep that balance, because you could end up working all the time, really, if you wanted to.”

In 2025, Mr Buckley is looking forward to welcoming 100 members of the Woodland String Band from Philadelphia, in what will be the 25-year anniversary of the American music group coming to Macroom around the St Patrick’s Day festivities.

Mr Buckley hopes to keep the Castle Hotel growing and developing, while very much remaining a key element of life in the town.

“You always have to be innovating, staying a step ahead, and always looking to make continuous improvements,” Rory says.