James Joyce famously featured the Ormond Hotel, now derelict on Dublin’s quays, in the Sirens episode in Ulysses, but can a view conjure a thousand words? Are some bedsteads more conducive to creativity than others?
The world is rich with hotels with literary associations. Perhaps that’s not surprising: after all, writers need to live somewhere, and while some travel to find inspiration in company, others have sought wilder escapes. In Ireland, Elizabeth Bowen was famously fond of The Shelbourne, JRR Tolkien loved Gregans Castle in the Burren, while George Bernard Shaw found Glengarriff’s Eccles Hotel beautifully conducive.
You don’t have to be planning your own masterpiece to make the most of a literary hotel, but where better to curl up with a good book than in the very place it was put down on paper?
Drishane House, Co Cork
Edith Somerville
Home of Edith Somerville, of Somerville and Ross and the Irish RM books fame, Drishane is packed full of the famous writer’s paintings and memorabilia. Set on a headland in Castletownshend, the house, which was built in 1780, has been in the Somerville family for nine generations. A small museum in the adjoining stableyard includes a trove of notebooks, sketchbooks and photographs. Drishane is open during Heritage Week each August, but you can rent the entire house on a weekly basis; it sleeps six. There are also three charming rental cottages on the grounds, from €750 per week. drishane.com
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Renvyle House Hotel, Co Galway
Oliver St John Gogarty, WB Yeats
Somerville and Ross (see Drishane House) mention Renvyle House in one of their books, and in 1917, Oliver St John Gogarty, poet, surgeon and politician, took it on. His pal WB Yeats honeymooned at Renvyle and debuted his first Noh play in its lounge. The original house was burned in the Civil War, but Gogarty rebuilt it and the literary visits continued. Today they are far too tactful to spill the beans on their writerly guests, but Renvyle, described by author Mario Rossi as a “hotel at the edge of a sunset”, continues to inspire. B&B from €140 per room. renvyle.com
Also on the Yeats trail, check out Castle Leslie in Co Monaghan, where the poet was fond of the Mauve Room when he came to visit Eamhain Mhacha (Navan Fort). Jonathan Swift was also a fan, and went so far as to write a satire about the Leslie family. From €390. irelands-blue-book.ie
Strand Hotel Bray, Co Wicklow
Speranza and Oscar Wilde
On Bray’s Promenade, The Strand was built in 1870 by Sir William and Lady Jane Wilde. Sir William was a surgeon, while Lady Jane published revolutionary poetry under the pen name Speranza. Nowadays the pair are more famous for being Oscar Wilde’s mum and dad. Inheriting the Strand in 1876, Oscar sold it two years later. Still, the connection gives you the chance to sleep in rooms named for his works, and who could resist the temptation of waking up in An Ideal Husband or even The Devoted Friend? What happens after an overnight in The Picture of Dorian Gray is unclear. Rooms from approximately €180. thestrandhotelbray.com
Ballynahinch Castle, Co Galway
Margaret Atwood, Seamus Heaney, Edna O’Brien, Peter Fallon, Michael Longley
The list of writers who stayed at or have been inspired by Ballynahinch would almost fill a book by itself. Seamus Heaney’s evocative Ballynahinch Lake, written in the 1990s, was a gift for guests at one time. Edna O’Brien had someone bring her into the estate woods and fire a shotgun (legally of course) while researching her 2002 true-crime novel In the Forest; and Peter Fallon kicked off a series of collaborations when his poetry collection Ballynahinch Postcards was published in 2007. They’re not short of lovely contemporary art either. B&B from €395 per room. ballynahinch-castle.com
Plaza Hotel New York, plus Long Island, Rhode Island and Boston
F Scott Fitzgerald
It certainly helps the hospitality sector that F Scott Fitzgerald got around, and there’s no shortage of hotels boasting his and his wife Zelda’s names in their visitor books. As 2025 marks the centenary of the publication of The Great Gatsby, Bon Voyage’s Gotham, Gatsby and the Gold Coast trip looks like a literary winner. Kicking off at New York’s fabulous Plaza, where a key scene from Gatsby is set, you then tour the Hamptons and Newport Rhode Island, soaking up Gilded Age habitations before winding up in Boston. Tailor-made night fly-drive itineraries with departures from Dublin, from €4,695 pps, bon-voyage.co.uk.
Love the Plaza so much you don’t want to move? Maybe you grew up on Kay Thompson’s Eloise books about the little girl who lives at the hotel. The Plaza has both Gatsby- and Eloise-themed rooms – think ultra lavish on both counts, with a night in either from approx $2,000 per night. That’s fandom for you. theplazany.com
Still on the Fitzgerald trail, he wrote part of Tender is the Night in Montgomery Alabama, while Zelda worked on Save Me the Waltz. Their house is a museum, but upstairs has been converted into two apartments, which you can rent on Airbnb, from approx €105 per night off season. thefitzgeraldmuseum.org
Or head to the south of France, where the couple also put up at what is now the Hotel Belles Rives, a breathtakingly lovely spot in Juan-les-Pins, from €157 per night off season, rising to €680 and up in high summer. slh.com
Hotel Chelsea, New York
Thomas Wolfe, Mark Twain, Dylan Thomas, Arthur Miller, Brendan Behan, Arthur C Clarke, Sam Shepard, Jack Kerouac, William S Burroughs
Unfortunately, or fortunately – depending on your view of luxurious comfort vs original grit, New York’s infamous Chelsea Hotel has been given the full glittering makeover. The famous writers who lived there are legion; so too are the artists and musicians. Marrying the two, Leonard Cohen wrote his famous Chelsea Hotel No 2 about his fling with Janis Joplin there. Today, photographs echo the glory days, and wealthy wannabes crowd the cocktail bar. That said, it’s actually still kinda fun. From $504 per room. hotelchelsea.com
5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea, Wales
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas may have ended his days at the Chelsea Hotel, via New York’s White Horse Tavern, but the poet was born in this Swansea suburb, and it was here that he lived for 23 years and wrote the greater part of his published work. Restored to its original glory, you have the run of the entire house, including Thomas’s bedroom. House tour included in your stay, and you are following on the heels of previous visitors who have included, eclectically, Johnny Depp and King Charles. Sleeps up to seven, from £312 for two nights. dylanthomasbirthplace.com
Burgh Island, Devon
Agatha Christie, Noel Coward
An Art Deco hotel, inaccessible by car, and cut off from the mainland at high tide: surely the ideal setting for a murder mystery? And so it was with Burgh Island. Agatha Christie used it as a writer’s retreat in the 1930s. You can book her beach house, although it has been upgraded since her day. She set two novels there: Evil Under the Sun and And Then There Were None (originally published under a different title). So enchanting is the spot that Noel Coward, who came for three days, extended his stay for three weeks, and it’s still the kind of classy joint that would have appealed to him. They insist on black tie in the Grand Ballroom at dinner, but imagine it with jazz and you get the picture. From £400 B&B for two, rising to £645 in high summer. burghisland.com
Henry’s Townhouse, London
Jane Austen
The London former home of Jane Austen’s favourite brother Henry, with whom Jane would have stayed, gathering insights for her novels, and undoubtedly writing the odd word or two as well, is now a boutique hotel. There are just six rooms, and each is named after an Austen family member. You will find a book of letters from Jane to her sister Cassandra while you’re there. As 2025 is the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth, a series of events and talks are planned, including sessions with guest authors and tours of Austen’s London. Two nights for author events, including tour, welcome fizz and supper from £975 pps, or B&B from £545, henrystownhouse.co.uk
Given the year that’s in it, also check out Chawton House in Hampshire, owned by another of Jane’s brothers, Edward. Jane lived in a cottage on his estate, and you can stay in a three-bed apartment in the North Wing of the main house. Minimum stay three nights, from £275 per night on Airbnb. chawtonhouse.org
Chateau du Gué aux Biches, Normandy
Alexandre Dumas
Unbelievably charming, this former hunting lodge was a home away from home for the Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers author, and fellow swashbuckling French writer Paul Féval. With just five rooms, plus one gîte, you’re right on the doorstep of the spa town of Bagnoles. Book the Alexandre Dumas Suite from €225 per night B&B, minimum stay two nights in high season. chateaudugeauxbiches.fr
GoldenEye Villa, Jamaica
Ian Fleming
Former intelligence officer Ian Fleming designed his lush Jamaica getaway and named it after a sabotage operation he had created during the second World War. The sabotage turned out to be unnecessary but Fleming went on to write 14 James Bond novels at the desk which is still to be found at the villa. Now expanded to a resort, you can rent beach houses and cottages (from $578 per night), but the real draw for well-heeled Bond fans is the villa itself. Sleeping up to 10 with a three-night minimum, rates start from $7,730 per night, but you do get a private butler. Don’t order martinis – Fleming himself drank gin and bitters. “Would these books have been born if I had not been living in the gorgeous vacuum of a Jamaican holiday?” Fleming asked. “I doubt it,” he concluded. goldeneye.com
Farringford, Isle of Wight
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Okay, so you don’t get to stay in Tennyson’s actual gaff; instead the self-catering cottages in the grounds of The Lady of Shalott author give you access to the house – now a museum – and the gardens that the Victorian poet laureate created. Back in the day the likes of Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, William Allingham and even Italian military leader Giuseppe Garibaldi came to visit, and drink in the air “worth sixpence a pint”, as writer Anne Thackeray once said. Dogs are welcome, and the cottages start at £393, rising to £1,040 in high season per week. farringford.co.uk
Eilean Shona, Scotland
JM Barrie
You can’t get much more off-grid than the Scottish isles but Eilean Shona could be worth the trek. Peter Pan author JM Barrie stayed, and was inspired to come up with Neverland. Find a collection of self-catering cottages, or rent the main house. There will be nothing but the awesome sea air and rugged views to distract you. Writers Retreats are held annually in spring. Cottages from £143 per night, eileanshona.com
