The Carton House, a five-star luxury estate in Kildare, is steeped in history. The historic estate, which was once home to the Earls of Kildare and Dukes of Leinster, has undergone
a 2 year, extensive refurbishment. This was undertaken to reactivate the hotel’s entrance, lobby, main house ground floor and historic suites, merging modern needs with old fabric.
In the historic courtyards of the house, a new reception area and courtyard bar were created. The new bronze-framed entrance portal leads directly into this space at the heart of the hotel.
The vision behind the remodeling process was deeply informed by the building’s history. Commissioned in 1739 to architect Richard Castle, the estate has passed through Earls and Dukes, hosted Queen Victoria, and Princess Grace.
The hotel was established on the site in 2000, and today represents one of the finest Georgian estates in the country, with 1,100 acres of private parkland including two Championship Golf Courses.
MDO’s concept for Carton draws on its rich legacy as the country seat of the Dukes of Leinster. As the preeminent aristocratic family in all of Ireland, their house at Carton was at the highest level of design, with the finest fabrics and paintings lining the walls, elaborate furnishings and exquisite contents.
This setting in the period when the Georgian moves into the Victorian period allowed us to create mixed design so typical of layered country housing schemes.
The formal state rooms are no longer closed off hotel meeting rooms but are now decorated magnificently and open to the public as a series of interlinked staterooms serving breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. The library has been recreated as a snug and richly coloured whiskey bar. The former servant areas such as kitchens are reimagined as Kathleen’s Kitchen, with new exposed cooking counters where guests can see the live action of their food being prepared.
An innovation was to bring back traditional crafts to Carton. Handmade wallpapers were introduced to reinstate the magnificence of the public staterooms. The majority of new furniture is bespoke and handmade in the local workshops in a bid to focus on sustainable artisan suppliers close to Carton. A modern hidden LED lighting is introduced to the facades, entrance arrival sequence and the feature landscape trees.
The global pandemic raged all around this project as it progressed. Working with a client whom we have still not met in person is part of the global change in how we work now. The fundamentals of not being able to engage in person was a significant challenge. Shaped by an architectural process that operated across several scales, from restoration and remodeling of major rooms to detailed choices of furniture and material patterns, the scheme is an example of how historic architecture and modern hotel design can combine to craft a user experience that showcases a unique Irish luxury destination hotel. includes the spatial, the tactile, and the functional.