Tucked away on ‘the velvet strand’, a stretch of golden beach, we find the 4-star Portmarnock hotel, the one time family home of the Jameson whiskey dynasty. The 134 bedrooms capture the panoramic views of the Championship Links golf course and beach with sea views, to the manicured garden courtyard. It also has an award winning spa, leisure and fitness club, as well as two award winning restaurants, the oak panelled Jameson bar and the ‘ 1780’ restaurant. The hotel even has its own on-site pub, the Sibin (Pronounced Shebeen) a hidden gem offering guests something stylishly unique who want an experience of times past.
The fastest and most convenient way of getting to Portmarnock is by air
Dublin airport is a mere 7 miles (20 mins) from the airport
Dublin city centre is 10 miles (40 mins) from Portmarnock
The Portmarnock Links course would be described as ‘walk-on’ from the hotel.
Resort courses attached to hotels can draw suspicion, especially when they’re located in the shadow of an illustrious neighbour. In 1986 the Bernhard Langer designed Portmarnock links opened and it wasn’t long before it was accepted into the top-20 courses in Ireland. It’s actually quite a good course! It doesn’t do showy or gimmicks, instead it makes use of the natural links land. The first eight holes play across subtly undulating land where the primary defence comes from pot bunkers and tangled grasses. From the turn however the layout encounters dunes where it begins to change character and where the contouring becomes more challenging and varied. The final quartet of holes signs with a flourish. This is a top golf course
You won’t be able to play the Portmarnock Golf Club as a dedicated corporate event, but we would expect to be able to secure anyone a private tee-time to do so, provided your group organiser is happy with such an arrangement. The Portmarnock Golf Club is widely regarded as one of the fairest tests of links golf in the world, but seems to be a course that the international rating agencies struggle to agree on. We’ve seen rankings ranging from top-20 to about #80, so at least allows us to describe it as top-100.
The Portmanock Golf Club only requires a local taxi (2 miles) which the hotel will arrange in-situ
There’s probably little point trying to tip-toe around it. We know that golf day corporate hospitality often overflows into the evening, and whereas perhaps people are reluctant to try and ‘sell this’ it remains something of an unspoken consideration. Anyone familiar with Dublin knows that it scores well in this area, its one of Europe’s more lively and atmospheric cities.
In addition to entertainment, the non-golfer can immerse themselves during the day. Shoppers can spend hours in Grafton Street, culture vultures have the National Gallery and Trinity College with the book of Kells,
Dublin needn’t be a classic sightseeing capital city however. It’s probably more about the people and ‘vibe’ than it is the buildings. The city of Dublin is a massive argument in favour of choosing Portmarnock
Dublin is a city of poets and pints. Combine them both with the literary pub crawl. The tour takes you around some of the city’s pubs that have strong literary connections whilst actors in role recite from the works of Joyce, Beckett, Yeats, Wilde, Heaney and Shaw, as well as more contemporary exponents. Initially met with bemusement, this tour has now established itself as firm favourite for those seeking to reconcile verse and thirst
“This is no ordinary tour…those who book it are transported away from the arid tourist cliches…sober or gently merry, following the footsteps of the literary greats is a wonderful ramble through the cobbles of Dublin streets”. – The Toronto Star
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