New Blog

It's farewell to our Mount Herbert Hotel blog as the hotel changes its name to Sandymount Hotel. Hope to see you over at our new blog!

Dublin's White Winter

Image Copyright David Soanes

What with all the snow in Dublin this winter, this great image from our Flickr Group was an obvious choice for us to feature on our blog!

Photographer David Soanes says:

"This picture was taken during December 2010 when there was more snow than I have ever seen before in my lifetime. I made sure to take as many photos of the snow as possible as it is not something that I have had the chance to document too often in the past. It was taken in Tallaght Village in Dublin and I was just trying to capture some pictures that showed off our White Christmas in all its glory. It was taken on a Canon 5d camera with a Canon 17-35mm L lens.

Lately I do a lot of street photography and architecture photography in Dublin. My first photography exhibition "Exploring Dublin" was held in the County Library, Tallaght in October 2010 and the photos can be seen here.

In Summer 2011 I hope to have another exhibition of my work - possibly an exhibition of photos I have taken of architecturally interesting and historic buildings in Dublin."

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

From all of us at Mount Herbert Hotel - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thank you to all who visited us in 2010 and we look forward to welcoming you to us at Sandymount Hotel in 2011!

Mount Herbert Hotel to be Renamed Sandymount Hotel

In May 1955 George and Rosaleen Loughran came to Dublin from Northern Ireland and founded Mount Herbert Hotel. Sadly, they passed away in recent years, but we are proud to say that their legacy continues with their son, John, and his eldest son, Gerard, directors.

What sets this hotel apart from others in Dublin is the genuine care for and interest shown in guests who stay with us by family and staff.

On 10 January 2011 the hotel will change its name to “Sandymount Hotel”. We are excited about the change as it marks a new direction, following recent enhancements which have given the hotel a new look and feel.

The name change coincides with the reopening of the Aviva Stadium next to the hotel, on the site of the oldest international rugby grounds in the world at Lansdowne Road.

This unique name will make the hotel easy to locate beside Sandymount, perhaps Dublin’s most beautiful village.

• If you have made a reservation with us as Mount Herbert Hotel for dates after 10 January there is no need to take further action in relation to your booking.

• Our telephone and fax number will stay the same.

• Our address will be Sandymount Hotel, Herbert Road, Lansdowne Road, Dublin 4.

• Our new website will be at www.sandymounthotel.ie

We look forward to welcoming you to Sandymount Hotel, where the care and values associated with the “Loughran tradition” will continue to be our cornerstone for the future.

Dublin at Night

Image Copyright Sylvia Taylor

This eye-catching image of Dublin selected from our Dublin Images Flickr Group was taken by Sylvia Taylor.

The picture brings together some of the city's newest additions along the River Liffey in a spectacular way - The Convention Centre Dublin, the Dublin Wheel and the Samuel Beckett Bridge.

Sylvia says of her picture:
"Dublin City is a fantastic place to take great pictures especially at night time. This particular picture was taken on my Nikon D40x on a slow shutter speed of 14 seconds and an ISO of 100. That weekend the Convention Centre and the Dublin Eye were lit up blue to represent National Diabetes Day so it was a great opportunity to capture an image of these two features lit up the same colour."

BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition

The BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2011, now in its 47th year, takes place on 12th - 15th January.

The competition has received a record-breaking number of entries this year, with 3,943 students submitting a total of 1,735 projects. 520 projects will be featured at the exhibition, which takes place at the RDS in Ballsbridge, just a few minutes from Mount Herbert Hotel.

We are offering a special rate for people visiting the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, with an overnight stay and full Irish breakfast from just €37.50 per person sharing.

Call us on 01 6142000 for more details or to make a booking.

National Crafts & Design Fair at RDS Dublin

If there's ever a time to start your Christmas Shopping, it's when the National Crafts & Design Fair comes to the RDS!

Running from the 1st December until the 5th, this annual event brings together 500 designers, artists and crafts people offering everything from chcolate to high fashion.

Entry is €10, with discounts for OAPs and Groups, and if you haven't had a chance to see everything (or buy everything!) you wanted, you can also get a free re-admission ticket on your way out.

Complimentary gift wrapping is available and early birds who get there on the first day of the event will also be treated to a 10% courtesty discount on all purchases.

As well as array of arts & crafts, there is also a Food Emporium offering aselection of food and wine from across the globe, along with free talks, tastings and demonstrations.

The RDS is only a ten minute stroll from Mount Herbert Hotel, making us the ideal place to stay if you're visiting the Fair from further afield. Take a look at our Christmas Shopping Stay, which includes a hot whiskey or Irish coffee with mince pie on arrival, an overnight stay in one of our stylish rooms and a full Irish breakfast the next morning from just €34.50 per person sharing. Call us on 01 6142000 for more details or to make a booking.

We hope you enjoy the 2010 National Crafts & Design Fair and find some great gifts!

Sligo Win 2010 FAI Ford Cup Final

Sligo Rovers won the 2010 FAI Ford Cup Final on Sunday, much to the delight of our Sales & Marketing Manager Michelle Sweeney, who hails from Enniscrone.

Our Tritonville Bar & Terrace was jam-packed full of fans on the day, with Sligo's Ocean FM coming along to broadcast the run-up to the match live from Mount Herbert Hotel. With a sea of supporters, live interviews and great music, the atmosphere was absolutely electric here!

Michelle is pictured above (third from left) with the lucky winner of Ocean FM / Mount Herbert Hotel competition Una Kilgannon of Templeboy, Sligo Mayor Matt Lyons (front row, second from left), and Sligo Rovers supporters.

Christmas in Dublin

Take a peek at a few of the events on offer this festive season in Dublin, just a snowball's throw from Mount Herbert Hotel!

Xpose Xmas Xperience 19th - 21st November
Get ready for the Christmas party season with fashion and beauty inspiration from the Xposé Xmas Xperience at the RDS. The 3 day event will feature catwalk shows & make-up masterclasses hosted by Xposé’s glamorous leading ladies, along with live entertainment by F.Y.D. on Friday's opening night and Jamie Archer on the Saturday.

Taste of Christmas 26th - 28th November
If you haven't had a chance to take a look at the new Convention Centre Dublin yet, what better reason than to go along to the Taste of Christmas! Meet the experts for their top tips on festive food & drink at this three day feast and sample signature dishes from Dublin's top restaurants. Celeb chefs (including Gino D’Acampo, Kevin Dundon, Heston Blumenthal, Catherine Fulvio, Conrad Gallagher and Donal Skehan) will be demonstrating how to create the perfect Christmas feast with live theatre shows in the sate-of-the-art auditorium, so you'll have no excuses!

A Chocolate Christmas in Temple Bar 3rd - 5th December
A fabulous combination of chocolate and winter wonderland, this 3 day festival is choc-a-bloc with festive fun for all the family, including outdoor movies, panto, chcocolate making talks, demonstrations, workshops and most importantly - tastings!

7UP Christmas on Ice
This year you can take your pick of two fantastic venues to take to your skates at. Admire the views from Arnotts rooftop rink or enjoy the festive atmosphere at the RDS, and chase the chills away with hot chocolate, gourmet coffee and treats from the chocolate fountain. 7UP Christmas on Ice opens at Arnotts on 12th November and at the RDS from 3rd December, and runs until mid January 2011.

Stay at Mount Herbert Hotel during the festive season and get an Irish coffee or hot whisky and a mince pie on arrival, an overnight stay in one of our stylish rooms and full Irish breakfast the next morning from just €34.50 per person sharing with our special offer. Call us on 01 6142000 for more details or to make a booking.

Christmas Parties at Mount Herbert Hotel

Looking for somewhere to celebrate Christmas with your colleagues or a group of friends? Our Gourmet Extravaganza is fun, festive and most definitely a feast. The evening starts with spectacular cocktails created by designer specialists, along with amuse bouche canapés, before a lavish 8 course tasting menu in our Cordyline Restaurant, with party novelties to get everyone in the festive mood.

And for one of these 8 courses, our Chef will be putting on a dramatic display in front of guests and making Christmas pudding ice-cream in just seconds with liquid nitrogen! As well as gourmet entertainment, there will also be fantastic live music to really get the party started and a bar extension so that it can keep on going.

For those looking to celebrate during the daytime, we are also offering a fabulous four course Festive Lunch.

Our Gourmet Extravaganza is €49 per person and our Festive Lunch is €25 per person.
See menus for both here.

Call us on 01 6142000 for details or to make a booking!

A Dublin Image from our Flickr Group

Image Copyright Patrick Losty

We have selected the fabulous image above to feature on our blog from our Dublin Images Flickr Group, taken by Patrick Losty. This picture is a great juxtaposition of old and new, with our neighbour Aviva Stadium in the background. Read Patrick's background info on his interest in photography and how this picture came about:

"I have been taking pictures of my home city Dublin since the mid 1980's and from the late 1980's I focused on Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann operated buses branching out into civil aviation in the early 1990's, started off and encouraged along the way by fellow transport photographer and author Jonathan McDonnell.

My photography interest is still as strong as ever and in fact the availability of digital cameras from 2004 onwards opened up many more items of interest where previously film cameras were restricted to 36 prints which meant many items in day to day life went unrecorded, digital cameras allow almost 100% coverage.

Wheelingintheyears.com
I have supplied the text and images for the yearly series currently up on Barry Millar/Tony Murrays excellent website, www.wheelingintheyears.com which covers every year from 1987 up to and including 2009. These mostly transport related photofeatures cover the main events that occurred during the specific year and some years feature non transport/non Irish items. If you click on year 1989, pictures 9 & 10 (April 1989) show the Johnson, Mooney & O'Brien Bakery Buildings, Ballsbridge and the Sweepstakes Building, Ballsbridge which were located not too far from Mount Herbert Hotel. Click on 2009, the new Samuel Beckett Bridge, the opening of IKEA Dublin, Guinness 250 were featured, click on 2007, the closure of Jurys Ballsbridge was featured. So there is something in the yearly series for everybody to enjoy.

I also provide Tony's website www.dublinbus.cc with photofeatures such as the Bombardier buses which were withdrawn from service in 2001, there are many other bus types featured too. On Saturday, 30/10/10, the famous and much loved Dublin Bus route 10 was withdrawn so I covered that most historic event, an image appears on my www.Flickr.com site under 'Shamrock 105'.

So the picture of the 'Railway Preservation Society of Ireland' (RPSI) steam train is one such item that will be on a shortlist for inclusion in Wheeling In The Years 2010. I generally watch the advertisements in 'The Irish Times' advising of such RPSI trips and then decide the best location for pictures taking account of sun direction and in this case Sandymount Railway station platform was chosen for this 22 August 2010 image."

Concerts at The O2

Dublin is a city with no shortage of live music or fantastic venues to enjoy it in. Here are some of the concerts lined up for the remainder of 2010 at The O2 Dublin. Mount Herbert Hotel is close to The O2 and we are currently running a great offer which includes an overnight stay in one of our stylish rooms with full Irish breakfast the next morning from just €37.50 per person sharing.* You can also get a pre-gig bite to eat in our Tritonville Bar & Terrace. Call us on 01 6142000 for more info or to make a booking.

*Subject to Availability. Terms & Conditions Apply.

November 6th
Paramore

November 7th
Simply Red

November 11th
Gorillaz

November 13th, 14th & 16th
Michael Flatley

November 22nd
Andrea Bocelli

November 27th
Diversity

November 29th
The War of the Worlds

December 3rd
Cheerios Childline Concert

December 4th
Horslips

December 5th & 6th
Arcade Fire

December 12th
Here Come the Girls!

December 14th
Deadmaus

December 15th
Elton John with Ray Cooper

December 16th
Shakira

December 18th
Meatloaf

2010 GUINNESS Series

Rugby fans don't have much longer to wait for international rugby to return to Lansdowne Road with the Autumn Internationals kicking-off at Aviva Stadium next month. The first match on 6th November sees Ireland play World Cup holders South Africa. In a clash of colours the visiting team gets to wear their home jersey, but to mark the special occasion South Africa have waived this right so that Ireland can play in green. The Ireland team will also play Samoa on 13th November, New Zealand on 20th November and Argentina on 28th November.

At just a stone's throw from Aviva Stadium, Mount Herbert Hotel is the ideal place to experience the atmosphere of the Guinness Series. Our room only rates for the Autumn Internationals start from just €49.50 per person sharing - give us a call on 01 6142000 for more information or to make a booking.

The 2010 Guinness Series Ireland Squad:

Forwards (19)

Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
Tony Buckley (Shannon/Munster)
Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
Sean Cronin (Buccaneers/Connacht)
Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
John Hayes (Bruff/Munster)
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)
Brett Wilkinson (Connacht)
Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster)
John Muldoon (Galwegians/Connacht)
Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Sean O'Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
Mick O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Damien Varley (Garryowen/Munster)
David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)

Backs (15)

Isaac Boss (Terenure College/Leinster)
Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Gavin Duffy (Galwegians/Connacht)
Keith Earls (Thomond/Munster)
Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock / Leinster)
Shane Horgan (Boyne/Leinster)
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
Johne Murphy (Young Munster/Munster)
Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Brian O'Driscoll (UCD/Leinster)
Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster)
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)

Camphill Ladies Raise €25,000

Here's a piece about Camphill Communities of Ireland's participation in this year's Flora Women's Mini Marathon that was featured in their newsletter, Camphill Spirit. Mount Herbert Hotel are delighted to have been able to provide a helping hand to the partipants with our facilities. Congratulations to Camphill on raising this phenomonal amount for their charity.

Camphill Ladies Raise €25,000
The Flora Women's Mini Marathon of 10k took place on a very wet day in Dublin on Bank Holiday Monday, June 7th 2010. In total there were 40,397 runners from all over the world. The Dublin Mini Marathon is the biggest all women event of its kind in the world and a major event in every charity's organisational calendar including Camphill. 121 volunteers were drawn from all communities in Ireland from Ballybay to Carrick-on-Suir and Dunshane and Greenacres in between. All ran or walked in support of Camphill Communities and in excess of €25,000 was raised for individual communities, thanks to their efforts. About 70 Camphill participants enjoyed the facilities offered by the Mount Herbert Hotel in nearby Ballsbridge, and arrived in time for a pre-run lunch and change of clothes. After that, the Greenacres bus began ferrying people to the start at Merrion Square an back afterwards for a hot shower and refreshments. Our thanks to John Loughran of the Mount Herbert for his support, which he has undertaken to provide again next year, when we hope to double our participation and funds raised. For information, sponsorship cards or tee shirts contact Michael Hilary at: 087 2568810

Dublin Marathon

People all over Ireland and further afield are getting ready for the 31st Dublin Marathon, which takes place on Monday 25th October.

13,000 entries were received this year for what is internationally known as the "Friendly Marathon", not least because of the great support shown by specatotors on the city's streets. The single lap course is mostly flat, participants will be happy to know, and takes in Dublin sights including St. Stephen's Green, Trinity College, O'Connell Street, Phoenix Park, and the RDS just up the road from us.

We've put together a great Dublin Marathon special offer here at Mount Herbert Hotel. Park your car for free, check in and enjoy dinner in our Tritonville Bar & Terrace (with pasta on the menu for marathon participants!), have a great night's sleep in one of our stylish rooms, and get an early breakfast the next morning before the event (with a selection of fresh fruit available but also full Irish breakfast to keep the spectators going!). And there's no need to think about checking out until later on as we've extended this until 4pm for our Dublin Marathon offer. This offer is just €49.50 per person sharing, or €79 for single occupancy!

Call us on 01 6142000 or email us at info@mountherberthotel.ie for more information or to make a booking.

To all who are particpating, good luck, we hope the weather is perfect on the day!

Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival

The Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival started its mammoth programme of 363 performances in 22 venues from 10 different countries yesterday, and goes on until October 17th.

As well as a huge variety of shows to take your pick from, there is also a long list of special events.

"In Development" gives you the opportunity to see major Irish theatrical works before they hit the stage (free but booking essential).

"Panel Discussions" looks at topics including the recent turbulence of the world economy, the ethical, environmental and social responisibilities of supernational companies, and the influence of the audience on artists' works (free and not ticketed).

"The Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes" includes an invitation to help him create his next show with an audience, and a documentary about him after which he will be available to answer questions (both free and not ticketed).

The full programme is available on the festival website and information is also being posted on their blog.

Mount Herbert Hotel is just 2 DART stops from the city centre for anyone looking for accommodation for the festival.

Enjoy the show(s)!

Mount Herbert Hotel's Gardens

If you've had breakfast at Mount Herbert Hotel you might have noticed the beautiful roses on our tables. What you might not know is that they are hand-picked from our very own rose garden! As well as supplying us with lovely blooms in all sorts of colours, our gardens are the ideal spot to relax in. And as the weather starts to cool down, you can still enjoy the view from our Tritonville Bar & Terrace and Cordyline Restaurant.

Dublin Culture Night

The annual and very popular Culture Night takes place tonight, with arts and cultural venues all over Dublin and across the country opening their doors until late, with free admission.

From 5pm - 11pm in Dublin tonight you can choose from any number of events including literary readings, drama workshops, exhibitions, music performances, dance classes, and more.

Michael Bublé at Aviva Stadium

Michael Bublé will be taking to the stage of the new Aviva Stadium this Friday and Saturday on his Crazy Love Tour.

Bublé fans can enjoy a drink or a bite to eat right next door to Aviva Stadium at Mount Herbert Hotel. From 4pm-10pm we will be serving a 2 course dinner for €20 and 3 course dinner for €25 in our Cordyline Restaurant, both with tea or coffee included. And as well as drinks in our Tritonville Bar & Terrace, we'll also be serving canapé platters (at €20 and serving 4 people) and drinks in our lobby. There can't be a better place to get your night started!

This Weekend in Dublin - All Ireland Football Final & Dublin Port Open Day

There will be a fantastic atmosphere in our Tritonville Bar & Terrace this weekend for the All Ireland Football Final on Sunday with Cork v Down at Croke Park!

Tomorrow, Dublin Port is holding a free Family-Friendly Open Day. You can explore Ireland's largest port and find out what goes on behind the scenes with coach and boat tours and be entertained by balloon modellers, face painters, video installations, interactive games and more.