One of the ‘must do’ experiences that was on my wife’s bucket list for our recent trip to Ireland, was to stay at a castle. This article shares a selection of images captured during a visit to Cabra Castle, Ireland.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

The building that is now called Cabra Castle was originally constructed in the first decade of the 19th century by the Foster family.

The construction costs for the estate building were enormous and shortly after completion in 1813, the property was sold to the aristocratic Pratt family.

The Pratt family had owned the Cabra Estate since 1699, and their newly acquired lands and building were added to their existing land holdings.

Descendants of the Pratt family continued to own Cabra Castle until 1964, when its operating costs became too onerous. The country mansion was sold to the Brennan family who turned the property into a hotel.

In 1986 the property again changed hands, when a senior politician and businessman from the Emerite of Abu Dhabi, Mr. Mansour,  purchased it.

He closed the hotel, intending to convert the estate back into a private residence. This conversion never happened and in 1991 Mansour sold the property to the Corscadden family.

The Corscadden family run a number of hotels. They restored Cabra Castle, and opened it up as a luxury, four star hotel in the early 1990’s. The family still owns and operates the property today.

When my wife and I planned our trip to Ireland, we decided to do a castle stay during the last few days of our trip. We thought that after being on the road touring Ireland for almost four weeks straight, a little luxury would be very welcome!

From a photographic standpoint Cabra Castle had much to offer. The exterior architecture is quite stunning, as are the gardens.

We also enjoyed the ornate details on the inside of Cabra Castle.

We enjoyed strolling through Cabra Castle and photographing points of interest, including the beautiful, flowing lines formed by the main staircase.

Many of the display pieces are works of art in their own right.

Everywhere one looks there are interesting details to capture.

Cabra Castle caters to both consumer and corporate clients. There are on-site restaurants and banquet facilities.

We found our room to be well appointed, spacious and comfortable.

Cabra Castle is located in the Kingscourt area, about an hour’s drive (78 km) northwest of the Dublin Airport.

We certainly enjoyed our visit to Cabra Castle. It was a special ‘luxury treat’ that created many fond memories.

If you enjoyed the photographs in this article you may want to check out our Images of Ireland eBook. This 209 page eBook features over 400 original photographs and is available for purchase and download at a cost of $12.99 CDN.

All of the photographs in this article were captured hand-held using Nikon 1 equipment. If you would like to find out more about the Nikon 1 system, you may find our eBook The Little Camera That Could of interest. The eBook is available for purchase and download. It is priced at $9.99 Canadian. Readers interested in purchasing a copy can use the link below.

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Technical Note:
All images were produced from RAW files using my standard process. Perspective control adjustments were made to many of the photographs during post processing.

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