LONDONDERRY ARMS HOTEL – CARNLOUGH
Georgian Coaching Inn Hotel on the Antrim Coast
The
first thing to know about the Londonderry Arms Hotel is that it is
not in the city of similar name, but in the charming and picturesque
fishing village along the stunning, scenic Antrim Coast of Northern Ireland,
about a 40 minute drive from Belfast and 20 minutes from the famed Giant’s
Causeway and Rope Bridge (see Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge). The historic hotel, set in the Glens of Antrim where the HBO
television series “Game of Thrones” finds some of its rugged
locations, is a family run hotel in the traditional Georgian coaching
inn style, with a rather unique history. It was once owned by Sir Winston
Churchill. The family run hotel is decorated in traditional style, with
each of the rooms furnished with its own individual character individually,
all with ensuite bathrooms. With 2 restaurants, The Londonderry Arms
offers elegant old world surroundings of the Frances Anne and Tapestry
Room restaurant, and the Coach House Bistro. The menus reflect the specialties
of the rugged Glens of Antrim, wild salmon, lamb from the Antrim Hills
and local produce.
The village of Carnlough, (Cairn of the Lake from the Gaelic) lies at
the foot of Glencoy, one of the nine Glens of Antrim, overlooking the
Sea of Moyle, which divides Ireland from Scotland. The Londonderry Arms
was built in 1848 by the Marchioness of Londonderry, Lady Francis Anne
Tempest. In her teen years, Francis Anne inherited the lands between
Glenarm and Cushendall in her own right and at 19 married Charles William,
Lord Stewart, the Marquis of Londonderry, sometimes called Fighting Charlie
for his fervent nature, who as Ambassador to Austria, assisted the Duke
of Wellington in the negotiations of the Congress of Vienna where the
boundaries of Europe were redrawn after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
In
the 1840s, Ireland found itself suffering in the depression of the
Great Potato Famine. Lady Londonderry, inspired by a vision of her
duties
as a landlord, and perhaps by some of the changes taking place in other
parts of Europe developed her lands, building a town hall and the hotel
as a works project on the protected harbor in the midst of the glens,
and a limekiln for industry with a small railway line to connect the
pier to the limestone quarries in the hills. The Londonderry Arms Inn
with rooms and a restaurant was at the center of the coastal village.
Francis Anne died in 1865 and the estate passed to her grandson Herbert
Vane Tempest and after him, passed to his second cousin Winston Churchill.
The route of the old limekiln railway now long gone now crosses a path
to the little harbor with views out across the sea. The hotel was bought
by Frank and Moira O’Neill in 1947 and their son Frankie restored
the property after graduating from the prestigious Scottish Hotel School
and restored it to its present country elegance.
The
Londonderry Arms hotel is also associated with another unique bit of
Irish history. In the pub room you’ll find photographs of one
of Ireland’s most famous race horse of the 1960’s, Arkle.
A national legend whose strength was claimed to have come from drinking
Guinness twice a day, the horse was owned by Anne Grosvenor, the Duchess
of Westminster, affectionately “Nancy” around the race course,
whose husband was the richest man in England and a close friend of Winston
Churchill, a horse owner himself. Arkle’s skeleton can curiously
still be seen on display the Irish National Stud Museum in Kildare, Ireland
east of Dublin (see Irish National Stud).
The Londonderry Arms Hotel of Carnlough can serve as a base for exploring the north coast of County Antrim (see Northern Ireland Coastal Walks), from hiking in the green glens, to the coastal scenery from Carrickfergus to Bushmills with its distillery and the Giant’s Causeway, or just a stop between Belfast and the actual Londonderry, about an hour and half away to the west. © Bargain Travel Europe
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SEE ALSO:
DRIVING
SCENIC IRELAND WITH A RENTAL CAR
DUNLUCE
CASTLE - ANTRIM COAST DRIVE
COOKING
HOLIDAYS IN IRISH CASTLES
ARMAGH PUBLIC LIBRARY & VICAR’S HILL No 5
ENNISKILLEN CASTLE - FERMANAGH
IRELAND COASTAL COTTAGES – BY THE WEEK
