Castlemartyr Resort review – can an €8m upgrade take East Cork five-star to Ireland’s top table?

Once a symbol of Celtic Tiger overreach, this classy East Cork hotel has new owners, a fresh look and a Michelin-star restaurant...

The stunning grounds of Castlemartyr Resort in Cork

Pól Ó Conghaile

The traffic can be torturous crawling into Castlemartyr village. But once you turn into the 220-acre estate stashed just beyond its main street, the tension tenderises in your shoulders.

A 12th-century castle ruin floats by. We pass the undulating greens of a golf course, horses in a paddock, a family walking into woodlands and a feast of formal planting. It’s calming yet curated, befitting an estate once owned by Sir Walter Raleigh and today home to Castlemartyr Resort.