History
Hastings Hotels purchased the Slieve Donard in 1972 together with 5 other railway hotels, including the Midland in Belfast, the Great Northern in Rostrevor, the Northern Counties in Portrush and the City Hotel in Derry. At that time £1million was paid for all six hotels! The Slieve Donard is the only one still operating as a hotel today, and after many multi-million pound developments over the last thirty years, it is surely a very bright jewel in the Hastings Crown. In years gone by, it was a very fine place to stay, and today the group like to think of the Slieve Donard as the “Gleneagles” of Northern Ireland.
The Slieve Donard hotel in Down was originally built by the Belfast and County Down Railway, as an ‘end of line’ luxury holiday destination. Construction started in 1896 and was completed and officially opened on 24th June 1898 at a cost of £44,000. It was one of the most majestic hotels of its time and it was almost self-sufficient with its own bakery, vegetable gardens, pigs, laundry and innovatively a power plant, which also provided electricity for the railway station. To meet this demand a spur was added to the railway line to allow the coal trucks to deliver directly to ‘the back door’, and each bedroom had a real coal fire.
The Decor
The Slieve Donard typified the ideas of Victorian grandeur and luxury with its Drawing Room, Grand Coffee Room, Reading and Writing Room, Smoking Room, Billiard Room and Hairdressing Rooms – you can’t help but conjure up scenes of great style and decadence. Of course the grandeur didn’t stop in the ‘public’ rooms. Each of the 120 bedrooms was beautifully appointed with Chippendale furniture, Persian carpets and of course its own fireplace.
The pre-occupation with the health-giving properties of the sea was typical of the period and the Slieve Donard boasted suites of remedial and sea baths. ‘One’ could partake of sea water baths, douche, spray, needle and Turkish baths in all the comfort of the hotel and all provided by electric pump straight from the sea. A little known fact is that all of the brass carpet rods on the stairs were polished twice a day!
