THE MERRION
Peaceful and Elegant City Retreat
This stalwart of central Dublin tradition was created in 1997 by restoring and combining four Grade I Listed 18th Century Georgian townhouses. Its location proximate to Merrion Square and the National Gallery of Ireland renders its immediate hinterland peaceful and well-to-do.
In addition to the reception and concierge desks, the ground level of the main building comprises two delightful interlinked sitting rooms, one of which features a real fire place for winter comfort, and where afternoon can be taken year-round. Behind these rooms lays an open garden, which features restaurant tables for summertime eating.
The two Michelin star Patrick Guilbaud is also located on the ground level of the main building, with the breakfast restaurant situated in the modern rear wing, off the garden.
The spa and gym are located at basement level, each of which is size restricted. There is however an adequately sized heated pool, also on the basement level.
The bedrooms are traditional in style and fairly well appointed. A few of the bedrooms that overlook the interior garden have a small balcony. Champagne and fruits greet returning guests.
Bathrooms are on the small side, although most feature a separate bath tub and shower. Old fashioned chrome plumbing fixtures add to the traditional feel.
A notable distinguishing feature of this hotel is the comfortable mattresses - so much so that we researched the manufacturer, which is a company located in Ireland and the UK - the mattress in question is called the “King Koil” and is available for purchase.
-
Bedrooms are traditional and cosy, with comfortable beds, and most include bath tubs and separate shower.
Robes, slippers, turn down service.
Nespresso coffee machine (original line pods).
8/10
-
Excellent. High quality superior beds. This part of Dublin is very quiet, so there is no noise and little light pollution.
10/10
-
The air conditioning functions well, with little noise.
9/10
-
Professional, friendly and accommodating staff.
9/10
-
The spa area (in the basement) features a large internal swimming pool, as well as treatment rooms and a hair salon. The steam room and sauna are both small, with the latter only comfortably accommodating two persons.
The gym is small but fairly well-equipped. Its not large enough for the quantity of people who want to use it.
7/10
-
Excellent buffet style breakfast featuring every anticipated option. Separately cooked breakfast items are available on request.
9/10
-
The coffee at breakfast was very good.
The rooms feature Nespresso machines (original line pods)
9/10
Breakfast at this hotel is well worth making time for, featuring a well-appointed buffet and very good coffee. The buffet includes the increasingly familiar raw dripping honeycomb box - this one however has a unique quality, being homegrown, produced by Merrion bees that live in the hotel’s rooftop beehives and which are supported by the lavender plants in the garden.
The breakfast staff are friendly and professional. On our last visit, a waitress spent some time telling us about her early memories of being a little girl visiting her uncle, a Jesuit priest. There was an old painting on his wall which was given to the Jesuit priests of Ireland in the 1930s as a gift following counseling and spiritual guidance being given to the painting’s owner who had purchased the painting in an auction in Edinburgh a few years earlier. That painting turned out to be Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ, which is now displayed across the road from the Merrion at the National Gallery.
Grafton Street, the main pedestrianised shopping area in Dublin, is located a few minutes walk from the hotel.
Personal Note
This hotel feels like a real treat, and is easily the most sumptuous place to stay in Ireland’s capital city.
When we first started staying here, in the early part of the century, the staff were trained to remember the names of guests. It was a tribute to their professionalism, and memory, that they pulled this off consistently well, saying hello to you by name when you passed them in the corridors. That didn’t happen on the last occasion that we visited, but it didn’t diminish the Merrion experience.
