Seaview House Hotel

The genius of West Cork’s Seaview House Hotel lies in its ability to offer its guests all the delights and luxuries of a top-class hotel, whilst also managing to incarnate the calm charm and private ambience of an Irish country house.

Seaview manages to be both modern, yet traditional. The house feels luxuriously Victorian, yet there is a cutting-edge bath and spa house out in the grounds where you can luxuriate in a seaweed wrap to your heart’s content. The food is truly classical  – scallops with black pudding; crab salad with Marie Rose sauce; consommé julienne; sole on the bone with lemon butter – yet the plating and presentation are confidently contemporary. In the bright light of the dining room, the cooking chimes perfectly: West Cork food in a great West Cork dining room.

There is no mystery as to how Seaview House achieves this saintly ambience: the team under Seaview owner Ronan O’Sullivan are as good as good gets – patient; funny; whip-smart; super-professional; and all the while pure West Cork. Mr O’Sullivan is one of those people with hospitality in his blood, and he sets the tone of Seaview at a genial, blissed-out vibe that means you need only step through the doors to feel your shoulders loosening, and your holiday modus operandi switching on. Seaview House Hotel is a classic.