2023 Award Winners 'MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE' AWARD 2023

Dunmore House Hotel Clonakilty Co Cork

Home to the O’Donovan and Barrett families since 1934 and welcoming guests since 1948, this beautifully located and immaculately maintained hotel on Clonakilty Bay has a sea view from most of the individually decorated rooms, and it’s a real home from home. Local touches abound and hands-on family hospitality is the trump card, twinned with the food experience - fish landed nearby in Union Hall, seasonal supplies from exceptional local producers, and fresh produce from their own Ocean Garden, just steps from the kitchen in which it is prepared. The wonderful location is the biggest USP of course, but there’s plenty else to keep you here. Everything is always immaculate yet homely and the dining experience is outstanding in a lovely low-key way. Delicious home produce, just in from the clifftop gardens (really worth visiting) is cooked with finesse but allowed to be itself – a simple pleasure on a recent visit was a gorgeous side, a bowl of boiled potatoes which, we all agreed, were ‘a treat just like sweets’. And why are potatoes like this so rare now? All round, a highlight of our year. And it’s pet friendly too.