Country House near Cork City for Wedding

thill1993

Hi all,

Me and my girlfiend now fiancee just got engaged last week. We have provisionally booked the Honan chapel in UCC for next March. Now we are starting the search for a hotel.
Our preference is for a country house or a hotel with a bit of character. Though our selection of a country house is limited as the wedding will probably be nearly 200 people as a rough estimate at this time.
We are going to visit the Radisson and Fota Island this weekend. I personally like the look of Sprinfort Hall near Mallow as it has loads of character as it seems to be one of the few country houses that can cater for larger than 150 people.

Any recomendations or peoples experience of hotels within an hour of Cork for weddings would be greatfully recieved.

Thanks

pwurple

Aww, congratulations. The Honan is lovely.

Big Numbers there for country house alright. Springfort hall was what came to mind for me. I think ballinacurra in kinsale is 150 max. You can use Fota House (not the hotel) for weddings, but you need to get it catered, there is no accomadation, and I think with 200 you would be split into various rooms.

The bayview in ballycotton isn't a country house, but has lovely views.

ABajaninCork

Ballyvolane House looks nice too. Not sure it will take your numbers but you can ask.

thill1993

Thanks for quick replys. Big numbers alright. I'm from West Cork hence the large country style numbers on my side and my fiancee is from the city.

I rang Springfort Hall today and are going to visit it on Sunday afternoon. I love the look of Ballyvoalne House and also Ballynatray down near Youghal but they do not hold more than 150 and also that would involve a Marquee which is a risk at any time in Ireland but migh be a tad cold at the start of March.
I might look into Fota House as I looked it up online and they have a wedding coordinator, which might be worth calling to enquire.
I also rang the Vienna Woods but they are booked out for the 1 st of March which is a good sign of a hotel.

Gatica

We visited Springfort Hall, they offered lots of extras and the setting there was stunning. We decided it was a bit far for us though.
Also have a look into Hayfield Manor. It's beautiful, bit on the pricier side though.

Malari

I was at a wedding in Barnabrow House in Midleton (www.barnabrowhouse.ie) and it was lovely. I think it holds 150 max too.

Gatica

I wouldn't recommend Barnabrow. The food is good but the rooms are really bad, just read the tripadvisor reviews.
Was at a wedding there before and anyone not sitting at tables near the dancefloor didn't know what was going on, missing the first dance, the throw of the bouquets and most of the songs would've liked to dance. The music also finished there early, like 1.30am, and the bar staff ignored lots of guests trying to get drinks after this time. The car-park is also a nightmare, without adequate lighting and quite small and narrow.

Malari

Gatica wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend Barnabrow. The food is good but the rooms are really bad, just read the tripadvisor reviews.
Was at a wedding there before and anyone not sitting at tables near the dancefloor didn't know what was going on, missing the first dance, the throw of the bouquets and most of the songs would've liked to dance. The music also finished there early, like 1.30am, and the bar staff ignored lots of guests trying to get drinks after this time. The car-park is also a nightmare, without adequate lighting and quite small and narrow.

Oh, that wasn't my experience at all! I thought the room we were in for the wedding was ideal, the staff were great and had no trouble parking. I didn't stay the night though, so can't comment on the rooms.

Toto Wolfcastle

Gatica wrote: »

We visited Springfort Hall, they offered lots of extras and the setting there was stunning. We decided it was a bit far for us though.
Also have a look into Hayfield Manor. It's beautiful, bit on the pricier side though.

Hayfield Manor is lovely but they cant hold anywhere close to 200.

Gatica

oops, didn't notice the higher numbers in the OP's post. Sorry, Hayfield won't work in that case. Barnabrow won't either though.
Maybe for a smaller wedding it's self-contained, but there was nowhere to sit except the bar-area once the back tables are taken away for dancing.

spade

Ballynatray has lots of space I think www.ballynatray.com/

eyescreamcone

pwurple wrote: »

Aww, congratulations. The Honan is lovely.

Big Numbers there for country house alright. Springfort hall was what came to mind for me. I think ballinacurra in kinsale is 150 max. You can use Fota House (not the hotel) for weddings, but you need to get it catered, there is no accomadation, and I think with 200 you would be split into various rooms.

The bayview in ballycotton isn't a country house, but has lovely views.

The Honan is lovely.
However as an ex-UCC head I was a bit dissapointed when they wouldn't let me use it for a non-Catholic wedding in 2011.
Poor form that only the Cats are catered for in this way.

A bit off topic, but thought it was worth mentioning.

eyescreamcone

Ballinacurra House, Kinsale might be worth a look.

Malari

eyescreamcone wrote: »

The Honan is lovely.
However as an ex-UCC head I was a bit dissapointed when they wouldn't let me use it for a non-Catholic wedding in 2011.
Poor form that only the Cats are catered for in this way.

A bit off topic, but thought it was worth mentioning.

I thought it was multi-demoninational. Maybe it was in the past?

eyescreamcone

Malari wrote: »

I thought it was multi-demoninational. Maybe it was in the past?

Strictly one denominational and always has been, I'm afraid.
Very "old school" pardon the pun!

Malari

eyescreamcone wrote: »

Strictly one denominational and always has been, I'm afraid.
Very "old school" pardon the pun!

I must have been thinking about the zodiac and non-typical catholic mosaics and art

pwurple

eyescreamcone wrote: »

The Honan is lovely.
However as an ex-UCC head I was a bit dissapointed when they wouldn't let me use it for a non-Catholic wedding in 2011.
Poor form that only the Cats are catered for in this way.

A bit off topic, but thought it was worth mentioning.

I really am surprised at that... There isn't even a priest associated with the honan afaik, as everyone I know had to bring their own parish priest. Plus the iconography isn't traditional either. Bad form indeed.

I have been thinking about the country house wedding, and I suspect if the OP can't cut the numbers down to the 150, and still wants country house, it is going to be pretty tough in Cork. Ballrooms to take 200 seated guests would be fairly rare even in Ireland.

Gatica

btw, are you inviting 200 or you think you'll have 200 attending? You'll need to take into account that you can get anything from 20-40% declines.

thill1993

There will be probably over 200 invited. And when we the very nice manager at Springfort Hall, he said that a wedding in March will have a much smaller declines as opposed to Summer or Christmas weddings as people dont have as much on.
I nearly know some people who wont go already but need to be invited out of good manners.
We have narrowed our search now down to Radisson and the Vienna Woods. The old Ditchley house attached to the Radisson really makes the wedding there, which is where the drinks reception will be held.
The entrance and drinks reception area in the Vienna Woods is really nice too as it'sthe old part of the building with an old winding staircase similar to the Radisson.
The Radisson is coming in a bit cheaper but the people at the Vienna Woods are so nice and helpful. It's a difficult decision but a good position to be in.

Toto Wolfcastle

I know a few people who have attended weddings in the Radisson and they all said that the food was amazing.

Roesy

Might be worth giving Innishannon House Hotel a call. We had our wedding there during the summer. Lovely old hotel with lots of character, really nice grounds and good food. We had a great day and had nothing but positive dealings with the staff there.

thill1993

I visited the Innishannon house hotel last Friday and the lady there was really helpful and I'd say it'd be perfect for a summer wedding but I'm just not sure about it having it there in March as you may or may not be able to make the most of the grounds depending on the weather.

Toto Wolfcastle

thill1993 wrote: »

I visited the Innishannon house hotel last Friday and the lady there was really helpful and I'd say it'd be perfect for a summer wedding but I'm just not sure about it having it there in March as you may or may not be able to make the most of the grounds depending on the weather.

I think you need to leave the weather out of it when deciding. It's too unpredictable. The weather has been amazing for the last few days and it's February. We got married in June last year and it lashed for the week before the wedding. The grounds started to flood. It cleared up a bit on the day and lashed again the next day. If you really like somewhere forget about the weather.

thill1993

Weather isn't an issue with relation to our decision to pick either the Radisson or Vienna Woods. I was just saying that Innishannon house would be nicer in the summer