After 25 years of building and leading Wicklow’s BrookLodge & Macreddin Village resort, the venue’s founders, Bernard, Evan and Eoin Doyle, have decided to sell up.
With all three brothers now looking to focus on other projects, agent JLL has been appointed to find a buyer for the hugely popular four-star resort. The venue is being offered for sale as a going concern with freehold title and carries a guide price of €17.5 million.
Located in a picturesque valley in Co Wicklow, and less than one hour’s drive from south Dublin, BrookLodge & Macreddin Village comprises an 85,000sq ft complex set within a 16-acre site. Since its establishment in 1999, the resort has earned numerous awards including Ireland’s Culinary Hotel of the Year and Ireland’s Luxury Eco-Friendly Hotel, while its certified-organic Strawberry Tree Restaurant has been named Best Restaurant and Best Organic Restaurant.
The BrookLodge Hotel forms the centrepiece of the resort and of the sale. It has 54 guestrooms, including 20 suites and junior suites, a lounge bar, the flagship Strawberry Tree Restaurant, The Waterside Lounge, The Garden Room and the award-winning Wells Spa which has 12 treatment rooms and a thermal suite that includes an infinity pool, jacuzzi, sauna, flotation room, serail mud chamber and an outdoor hot tub beside the river.
There are 24 additional guestrooms at the resort’s dedicated wedding and conferencing venue, The BrookHall, in Macreddin Village. It includes the River Room with seated capacity for 200 people, with its own kitchens, a lounge bar and terrace. It also provides the village with a second indoor swimming pool and sauna, suitable for family use.
The River Mews comprises four conference rooms on its ground floor and eight guestrooms overhead.
[ Close to mountains and coast: new terraced homes in Wicklow town from €400,000Opens in new window ]
Apart from these three facilities, the sale includes the whole of Macreddin Village, which is also home to Actons, an old-world country pub, and the Orchard Café. The village also contains La Taverna Armento, a popular Italian restaurant, and Macreddin Chapel, which is available for weddings and special events. The wider complex also includes stables, which are not currently in use, a converted farmhouse with staff accommodation and offices, and a large walled herb garden and several grow tunnels. The village has car parking for 150 cars.
While there is a Paul McGinley-designed golf course adjacent to the property, this is under separate ownership and is not included in the sale.
Commenting on the decision to sell, BrookLodge & Macreddin Village’s managing director Evan Doyle said: “We are immensely proud of everything we’ve accomplished over the past 25 years. This has truly been a labour of love, and we are deeply grateful to everyone who has been part of this journey. As we pass the torch to the new owners, we look forward to seeing how they will build on what we’ve created.
“I’ve also been fortunate to work with an incredible team, many of whom have been with us since the beginning, and I trust them completely with the day-to-day running of the hotel.
“For the last number of years I have been involved in numerous food projects and travelled extensively, and the business has continued to thrive in my absence. So now, it’s time for a new chapter – for both the new owners and for me, as I look to add a few more paragraphs to the next chapter of Ireland’s fabulous food story.”
Daniel O’Connor of JLL’s hotel division said: “Given this asset’s award-winning reputation, wide appeal and its high barrier-to-entry location in Co Wicklow, we expect to see significant domestic and international hotel investor interest in this extraordinary country house resort.”
