New 150-bed hotel mooted for Cashel, Co. Tipperary

New plans to build a 150 to 200-bed hotel in Cashel may be in the pipeline, the Tipperary Star can reveal.

President of the Cashel Chamber of Commerce, Mr Martin Lynch, has said the town and local business would benefit enormously from a major hotel being built in the Cahir road area.

At present, there are no large occupancy hotels in the heritage town, meaning Cashel is losing out to other tourist destinations such as Bunratty Castle, which can cope with the large busloads of tourists from the United States, the UK, and Europe.

Plans to build a large hotel a decade ago in the Convent Grounds ended in controversy, when a local group opposed the development. But now, new plans are in train for a facility which could hold 200 to 300 people, possibly on the Cahir road.

“I have made an argument with the local authority,” said Mr Lynch. The Co-Op on the Cahir road is due to close, leaving a prime site easily accessible to both the town centre, and M8 motorway, ripe for re-development.

“The Co-Op is closing in the New Year. They have a site in New Inn and Cashel, and they have decided to fully develop the site in New Inn. The Chamber will make the argument that that site on the Cahir road needs to be looked at as a site for a hotel.”

The site is close to major retail outlets, service stations for buses, and is within walking distance of the Rock of Cashel, and pubs and restaurants.

The Chamber will put together a full plan in the New Year, and will be calling on the County Council, tourism agencies, the IDA and public representatives to actively get behind the project. “We need to aim big. We need to aim for at least a 150-bed hotel, that can hold two or three buses,” said Mr Lynch. “A bus comes in to Cashel, and it's probably gone again in two or three hours. Bunratty Castle doesn't have half of what Cashel has to offer, but yet you go to Bunratty any night of the week, and the hotels and pubs are busy, seven nights a week, 365 days a year.” A hotel on that site would not impede on residential areas, and would massively boost footfall into Cashel, added Mr Lynch.