Our hotel in West Cork is a 'home from home'

THE unconditional welcome has been the bedrock of the Dunmore House Hotel welcome for 75 years. That open hand of hospitality is currently in the care of the third and fourth generation of the family: Carol Barrett and her son Peter.

Carol’s grandparents purchased the house and land at Dunmore in 1934, and it was from farming they expected to earn their crust. But her grandmother said of Dunmore that all she could see was water. The Atlantic Ocean dominates the view from almost every vantage point; farming, therefore, was always going to be challenging and naturally limited by the ocean.

“They were farmers, although my grandmother was very entrepreneurial,” says Carol.

But there was always a need to offer hospitality, in all the many conceivable ways it could be offered.

“Through the war and the polio epidemic, there was a need for greater houses to take on children or families from the cities looking for fresh air and countryside, and family members would call through the summer for their cup of tea.

“But one day, she went to a family wedding in a local hotel and came back saying she could do much better! 

There began the industry of the hotel, although the actual welcome and daily goings of entertaining had gone on for a while.

Carol’s parents, Derry and Mary, married in 1961 and soon after took over the running of the hotel, making additions and improvements.

“My mum was always one to be in the background, never really the face of anything. They worked hard, and there was never any sense of grandeur; even today, we’re a very grounded team here.”

For Carol, growing up in a hotel was great fun! There was always plenty of work to be done, and while the hotel was closed and quiet during winter months, in the summer, the siblings would move out of their rooms to accommodate guests or be shipped out to nearby relatives.

“When summer was over, we’d all move back in and try to nab the best rooms for ourselves! But I well remember the camaraderie and the care taken over people,” says Carol.

We always just saw this place as home, we really didn’t see it as the business or the work or the job – it was just home, and we all loved being at home.

For a spell, Carol did leave home behind, gaining a degree in UCC and working in New York for a year, but eventually, Dunmore called her back.

“It was very organic really – I just came home. It was with no great plan in mind, but my parents needed me, and they were very easy to work with.

“My father was always very giving of everything, and no restraint shown to my ideas.”

In the mid-1990s, Derry and Mary retired and Carol took over the hotel business. In 2014, her husband, Richard, retired from his solicitor’s practice in Clonakilty and joined the business, and now her son, Peter, is part of the team looking after functions, weddings and restaurant service.

The hotel has grown and expanded its offering over the years. Dunmore House Hotel now offers 30 spacious and individually decorated bedrooms, most with sea views, and even some pet-friendly rooms - because we all know dogs are family, too!

Dining encapsulates Adrift restaurant, recognised for its quality and provenance by the prestigious Georgina Campbell’s Ireland Guide and Michelin Guide, which also listed Adrift as one of Ireland’s Best Seafood Restaurants in Ireland in 2023. Casual dining is available in the cosy bar, or opt for the drama of the ocean vista on the Sea Terrace where woodfired pizzas are served from the Boatshed Pizza hatch.

For Carol, standards are everything. Throughout our conversation, she excuses herself as being “foolish”, an “over-spender” not driven by profit.

“I mightn’t be a bad hotelier,” she says, “but I’m a shocking business manager!”

But there’s a very good reason why Carol doesn’t do things the way others might.

“My business ethic revolves around people, and care, and team. We had probably 15 rooms of return guests last night, the loveliest people. You’re going around the bar and saying Hi, how are you? So, it’s about giving,” she says.

I want it to be perfect for our customers - foremost, and our team.

Go back far enough in our history, and you’ll find the foundation of Irish society was predicated on acts of hospitality. The Brehon Laws laid down rules for sharing the best of what you had with your guests, and from where praise for the famous Irish welcome originates.

“Hotels can be very scary places for people. First of all, people make a commitment to take a journey and if they then walk into a hotel and feel unloved or unknown, it’s very difficult to find a space, to decide if you like the food, or if you’re comfortable.

“Not everyone is confident enough to just go and hang out in a hotel, so that welcome for people is important; where here we all say ‘Welcome Back Home, enjoy your stay’. They don’t even mind if it’s raining!”

The rain is as welcome as the guests, it seems, especially considering it helps provide delicious fresh crops from The Ocean Garden, the hotel’s very own organic kitchen garden.

“We have four gardeners working in the hotel,” explains Carol. “Neal Hooper is our lead gardener, along with Justine, Roisin, and Finbarr who also does foraging for us. We have three polytunnels, and everything we grow is propagated from seed.

There’s a list in the kitchen of what we’ve got and what’s coming, and everything comes into the kitchen fresh every morning. It’s magnificent!

The Ocean Garden has become an importantly integral part of the hotel’s food offering.

“I just felt it was time in the sense that we needed to be part of a movement or of a change. It was probably a lifestyle choice at the time, but I could not eat a bought salad leaf now if you paid me!

“We just have an abundance of salad and lovely things all the time, and I get great joy out of the fact that it’s there.”

In 2022, the flagship restaurant, Adrift, made its debut in the globally renowned Michelin Guide, and has been included every year since. The recognition, Carol says, “was absolutely wonderful, and a huge accolade for simplicity”.

As far as is humanly possible, every ingredient featured on menus throughout the hotel is either sourced locally or grown just steps from the kitchen. Carol’s sourcing policy is quality first and is practically the only parameter on which a decision is made.

“For example,” says Carol, “we procured 300kg of extra-large Irish prawns by sheer determination.”

For a wedding, I ask?

“No,” says Carol, “just… for life! Do you think I asked how much they were charging me? No,” she says, “I couldn’t care less! I tell you one thing about this house: we never ask a price, only quality.”

The secret is about keeping things simple, says Carol: meats from O’Neill’s butchers in Clonakilty and Will Allshire in Rosscarbery, Glenmar in Union Hall for fish, Declan Walsh’s eggs – eggs from the hotel’s own hens; Gloun Cross Dairy for milk and butter, Shannonvale for Chicken, and Skeaghanore for duck.

“We make all our own breads, but we do get Panna Bread [from Cork city] for the bar – they deliver it down to us once a week on the bus!”

The West Cork larder is the envy of Irish food; it is special, says Carol, but where else would they go?

“We presume no other because of where we are. Where else might one go to buy something if Union Hall is just here, and Will Allshire is just there, and O’Neill’s Butchers are in Clonakilty? In our house, it’s a given that what we have is what’s best at any given time.

“For weddings, we serve three types of potato: roasted, gratin, and the best cream potato in the world with loads of cream and butter. 

If I was looking at costs, would I really want to be doing a mash of potatoes with loads of butter and cream? Well, no, not especially for 200 people. But would you do it any other way? No!

“There’s nothing really that’s not made within the hotel,” says Carol, whose head chef, Manuel Canapini, has been refining and imbuing confidence in the food service at Dunmore House Hotel for nine years.

“The day he walked through the door for the interview, I loved him. You know people. He doesn’t want to be called The Head Chef, although everyone probably defers to him. I’ve never heard him say anything louder than we’re speaking right now; he is serene, lovely, kind, encouraging, and he leads our kitchen team.”

So, what’s the secret to great Irish hospitality?

“Welcome, food, service and keeping things simple,” says Carol.

“Being a people person is really important in this industry; and of course, if you’re in the kitchen, you must love food!”

Hospitality, Carol says, is about having a love of people, and that a genuine sense of welcome from within – our famous Céad Míle Fáilte – has never been more important.