Blindgate House Reviews

Karen Brown Guide

Maeve Coakley purpose built this fantastic bed and breakfast set high up over the town. In a place where accommodations are traditional, Maeve's is modern, bright and airy, decorated in utterly peaceful colors. The bedrooms were particularly alluring with their soft-white walls, linen curtains and bedcovers turned down to show Killarney wool blankets, crisp cotton sheets and large square pillows. The largest room is king-bedded with the rest being either queen-bedded or twin-bedded. All have immaculate bathrooms with power showers above the tubs, modem sockets, satellite TV, phone, a tea/coffee tray and a trouser press. There's a cozy little sitting room where you can chat by the fire. Breakfast has lots of good things on it. There's several ways you can walk in to town where you can enjoy views across a sheltered harbor.

Frommers Guide

Here's a fabulous new entry to this years guide:the immensely stylish, inarguably low stress Blindgate house. Owner Maeve Coakley and designer Beatrice Blake have combined contemporary dark-wood furnishings natural fabrics, wood flooring, and serene lighting to achieve an effect that feels wonderfully indulgent and calming. Guest rooms are spacious and elegantly simple, while providing modern conveniencies such as satellite TV and modem connections. All in all you don't normally expect to find this level of designer savvy at this price level. It's a Zen haven amidst the bustle of Kinsale town.

Georgina Campbells Guide To Ireland

Maeve Coakleys purpose built guest house is set in its own gardens high up over the town, with spacious rooms, uncluttered lines and generally modern, bright and airy atmosphere, Blindgate makes a refreshing contrast to the more traditional styles that prevail locally. All bedrooms are carefully furnished with elegant modern simplicity, have full en-suite bathrooms and good facilities including fax/modem sockets as well as phone, satellite TV, tea/coffee trays and trouser press. Maeve is a hospitable host-and well-known in Kinsale for her skills in the kitchen, so breakfast here is high priority:there's a buffet displaying all kinds of good things including organic. Fresh fruit and juices, farmhouse cheese and youghurt, as well as menu of hot dishes featuring, of course, the full Irish Breakfast

Bridgestone's 100 Best in Ireland

Maeve Coakley's Blindgate House is one of those places that makes you feel fantastic. The design of this dream destination is so accurately achieved - Ms Coakley worked with interior designer Beatrice Blake to great effect - that it lifts your spirit just to walk in the door. The feng shui of the public rooms and the bedrooms is so pitch perfect that it achieves a positively sensual effect. This is a most tactile house, an address where fabrics, furnishings, art work and hospitality all commingle to give the customer what feels like a big hug of comfort. You can only achieve this sort of effect by being fiercely motivated, and the determination to achieve ever-better standards is just as evident in Ms Coakleys cooking at breakfast as it is in the design of the house.

Olive Magazine 2005

Maeve Coakley's B&B is home to the sleekest interior design you will find in Kinsale but comfort's a priority too - and the breakfasts are especially fine.

Our guest house also featured in

• Furniture & interiors of Ireland
• IMAGE Summer Interiors 2003
• Rough Guide To Ireland