Once upon a time there was a president of Ritz Carlton who wanted a new hotel brand which would set new standards in luxury. He also wanted an ancient green island in which to launch it.
Horst Schulze, former president of Ritz-Carlton Hotels, chose two castles in Ireland to serve as his prototypes for his hotel group, Capella, named for the sixth brightest star in the night sky.
The idea was that Ritz Carlton's five star product would be outshone by the sixth star.
As it happens, the Capella in Castlemartyr (between Midleton and Youghal in East Cork) was not the first in the chain to open. It was beaten by the hotel in Schloss Velden in Austria and some of the staff in the Cork hotel have come from Austria, instantly giving it a cosmopolitan flavour.
You can get the flavour of what to expect as you drive up the sweeping driveway. The first place you see is not the Richard Boyle homestead, but the original tower house that once belonged to the Knights Templar.
Dan Brown would like it here, Bram Stoker would have been happy with the tall gothic towers marking the pedestrian entrance form the town. Jane Austin would love the new-Paladian main house.
Drivers take a more circuitous route, bringing you to a T junction where you stop on front of the remarkable artificial river, one of the most spectacular water features in any Irish garden, ordered by Henry Boyle, the Speaker of the Old Irish House of Commons who developed the estate around 1750.
Take a turn left past the highly unusual irregular house front, with high procketed roofs, and you are in your car park space and ready for the grand entrance.
And they don't come much grander.
The smell of smoking wood greets you as you enter, and the sound of animated voices coming from the various doorways.
The ballroom, the full height of the house with an amazing plaster ceiling, was described as the best room in Ireland by Arthur Young when he visited in 1771. Birds, stags, flowers, foliage and cornucopia clamber out from the plasterwork.
The Bell Tower is the hotel's signature restaurant it is more than that.
Instead of the large dining rooms you find in Dromoland and Ashford you have four small rooms interconnecting salons with four tables in each, giving you the impression that you are dining in someone's living room rather than a restaurant with a capacity of 75.
The conversations from the next room mingle into your evening as the sommelier dances by with a new wine to sample, suggesting unusual vintages and answering the same question for the umpteenth time about what fate would await the bottle of 1959 Mouton Rotschild (€2,800 on the menu) if it happened to be corked and had to be sent back.
The voices mingle over the warm trout, quail's eggs, venison and gruner ventliner. In the next room is a party of American golf enthusiasts, who had to sample the Ron Kirby links-style course and couldn't wait for the back nine to open next spring (pack the sand wedge, there are 42 bunkers). The clubhouse will be ready in April.
In the other adjoining room is a group of English businessmen who have just had their ownership to a patent disputed, what better surrounds to face a crisis.
Near the window sit a warring middle aged couple from England whose raised voices silence those around them. On the other side a man is impressing a younger woman, and behind them sit a dignified retired couple from the west, who just love coming to Ballymaloe and have now taken a few days to sample the food here.
Executive chef Roger Olssonis from Sweden has come to Cork having spent all his life in London. The ambition of the Capella is to have a Michelin Star for each of its hotel restaurants.
It is ambitious, but Henry Boyle would understand. The first Corkman to become Ireland's most powerful politician dined within the walls of Castlemartyr.
Long lavish landings light up the journey to the suite. Suites today all come with the touch panels for the curtains and the mountainous pillows, and struggle to give a truly unique effect, this one has remarkable honey bowls for the soap.
One of the coffee table books offers a history of the house's life as a Carmelite boarding school for boys, generations of unkempt youths staring from the pages.
These are the boys who nursed the Celtic tiger and persuaded Schultz that Ireland was a place he should launch his new venture.
Birdsong and garden fountains are the sounds of the morning. Local ingredients illuminate the breakfast menu. New hotels are usually empty in midweek, this one is full of chat.
The sixth star is important, our towering Dutch host Patrick Brans says. It might not exist in official hotel ratings, but it means that all Capella hotels will have 100 guests or fewer, ensuring the level of personal service that bigger five star hotels cannot offer.
Even their largest conference room can hold 72, so the industrial scale service we get from five star product is not going to happen, even in city locations.
The hotel is planning to grow on Irish business, over the next twelve months 80% of the visitors will be Irish and about 20% American, enticed to stay in the lap of luxury with a series of special offers.
Horst Schulze's standard is the highest Mobil ranking in the USA about 300 hotels in the USA have achieved it, and he wants to achieve that for each of the hotels he opens around the world.
Ireland has been picked for two of the openers, the second is Donloy Castle in a truly breathy-taking setting west of Castletownbere next year.
It was the origin of the march of O'Sullivan Beare, and will launch another step in the similar arduous journey by Capella to the very top of the International Hotel charts.
Factbox
Standard Rooms u360
Deluxe Rooms u425
Capella Room u750
Grand Suite u1,450
Presidential Suite u3,250
Experience Capella Package overnight, full Irish Breakfast, access to the Auriga Spa, refreshment centre stocked with soft drinks and mineral water, tea and coffee facilities €320 per room €300 single occupancy.
Capella Dining Experience, overnight accommodation in a guestroom with full Irish breakfast. Dine in the Bell Tower restaurant enjoying a three course dinner, access to the Auriga Spa, refreshment centre stocked with soft drinks, tea and coffee facilities, €490 per room €380 single occupancy.
Couples Retreat two nights' accommodation in a Guest Room with full Irish breakfast each morning a la carte dinner for two people in the Bell Tower Restaurant Includes access to the Auriga Spa, refreshments, Standard Room €770 per room €385 per person sharing. Deluxe Room €990 per room.
Eoghan Corry
