Sleeper By The Dozen
Sun Herald
Sunday June 8, 2008
The Twelve hotel, in a classic Irish fishing village, is a slick, silvery affair, writes Belinda Jackson. The premier suite is chic to the eyeballs.
Even rich men get hungry if they don't get fed every day, roared the sports commentator, as the All-Ireland hurling champions Kilkenny geared up to defend yet another championship. There was nothing else on the radio. Today was the grand final and that was the only soundtrack as we drove across Ireland to one of the west coast's burgeoning bloom of boutique hotels.Hot on the list is the Twelve, in the wee fishing village of Bearna, five kilometres west of Galway, at the beginning of the mystical mountainous region of Connemara. The weather for the three-hour drive was an aberration and a typecast, all rolled in one.There'd been beautiful sunshine for days, to the wonderment of the Irish nation, but today had reverted to type. Everything was a shade of black or white - grey sky, grey clouds, grey highway. Even the animals in the fields that lined the highway matched obligingly, with black-and-white cows, sheep and shaggy, pot-bellied bespeckled ponies in shades of rain-sodden grey.The Twelve leaped on to the scene in Bearna (which means "the gap") on St Patrick's Day last year, in the Gaeltacht, as the Irish-speaking regions are known. The name "the Twelve" relates to the 12 "pins", or mountains, of Connemara, though in reality there are many more than just 12 peaks in the sparsely-populated region that spans the west coast of County Galway up to County Mayo.Originally this was to be a loner trip out to the moors of Connemara, but a few quick text messages later and my old Dubliner mate Emma was in tow.We rang the hotel to warn of the doubled numbers. "Not a bother," they replied cheerfully, but the laugh was on us when we arrived. "When we learned you two girls were coming we thought we'd change your room," said the manageress Sorcha, as she showed us around. "At first we were going to pop you in here." And she swung open the door of XXII.We gaped. Discreetly, of course. The Twelve's premier suite, XXII, is chic to the eyeballs: one of the best I've seen on the island.Designed by Dubliner Brian McDonald, whose CV includes refurbishments in Dublin's slick Jameson distillery and the Morrison Hotel, the walls are lined in metallic floral wallpapers, Italian-etched glass mirrors and plasma screens, with ankle-hugging Persian rug underfoot.This is not a room to share with your mum when "doing" Europe. This is where you bring your lover for a whoop-it-up weekend with pure swank: rest assured it'll be the cleanest dirty weekend you've ever had, as the bathroom, squared off from the bed by only a pane of glass, features a deep, divine jacuzzi (hence the room change for the girly weekend). We snickered like naughty schoolgirls at the "take-me-now" super-king bed and stepped away from the glistening light fittings so big they'd take you out if they ever shook free from their confines.I thought briefly about sending Emma packing back to Dublin and assuming my rightful place but, you know, our new room, decorated in the same moody monochrome of silver, black, grey and white, wasn't to be sneered at.I had the king bed while Emma got a fold-down double sofa in the adjoining living area, which she declared the best she'd ever slept on. There was a little wet bar with a fridge and all the essentials - champagne glasses, wine openers and plenty of bottles.They love a good mirror here at the Twelve - massive mirrors in gorgeous gilt frames lie on their sides propped against the corridor walls and the rooms have lovely full-length freestanding mirrors that ensure you don't walk out in public with a piece of loo paper stuck to the heel of your best kitten slippers.The bathrooms are piled high with refillable (and therefore un-nickable) bottles of absolutely divine, 100 per cent organic Voya toiletries made from seaweed gathered from the Galway coast, famed as a universal health tonic and the very thing for Guinness-induced hangovers.The rooms are divided into two wings, one for mirror-lovin' couples and serious corporate types (the hotel is also fully equipped for small conferences and has free Wi-Fi throughout), the other wing for families with kids, catering to the many Dublin-based families coming home to the mother county for long weekends and summer hols, while it's a book-ahead affair for the biggest social event on the west of Ireland's calendar, the Galway races.Being set in the animal-loving Ireland, the Twelve welcomes dogs and cats with pet-friendly rooms and a pet concierge, has trad music in the bar, a chef's table in the kitchen and its own bakery. The big puller in the bar is a huge open fire, with leather lounges galore pulled around to face the flames while the rain pounds on the stone walls outside and the room's windows.The dinner menu in the hotel restaurant West features local seafood, including oysters with a tang of briny seawater, cod, rich seafood chowder, Irish beef and plenty of excellent, home-made soda bread that we fill up on, not knowing our mains would be whacking great affairs - big plates of big food - that would have us nodding sleepily over the last glass of red wine.St Trinian's fans, I'm sorry to report there were no pillow fights and no late-night raiding of the bar fridge, just the contented snores of two overfed girls from beneath goosedown duvets, dreaming of Connemara ponies wrapped in silvery wallpaper till the rain on the windows woke us next morning.>TRIP NOTES* Getting there Virgin Atlantic flies Sydney to London Heathrow daily (www.virgin-atlantic.com) with flights to Dublin for as little as EUR1 ($1.60) before taxes (about EUR30) with carriers including BMI (www.flybmi.com) and Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus.com).* Staying there The Twelve Hotel, Bearna, County Galway, has midweek packages from EUR170 per person (two nights bed and breakfast and one dinner). Phone +35391597 000. See www.thetwelvehotel.ie.* More information Contact Tourism Ireland. Phone 02 9299 6177. See www.ireland.ie.
© 2008 Sun Herald
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