Great Southern Killarney
East Avenue Road, Town Center, Killarney
greatsouthernkillarney.com • +353-646-638-000
Killarney (Cill Áirne in Irish) is Ireland’s best-known tourist destination, and when it comes to an elegant setting for afternoon tea in the popular town, the Grand Foyer of the Great Southern is second to none. When the hotel first opened as the Railway Hotel in July 1854, the architect’s remit was to build a property “to take the visitor’s breath away”—169 years later, the iconic hotel still does! Later called The Great Southern, it was Ireland’s first purpose- built hotel, constructed when The Great Southern and Western Railway Company began extending its rail lines outside of Dublin to accommodate a burgeoning tourist market. The company considered many regions in Ireland for this ambitious project, but eventually chose Killarney for its location in the heart of beautiful County Kerry. After running a design competition to choose an architect for the project, Frederick Darley, the official architect for Dublin’s Trinity College and the Merchant’s Hall and Kings Inn Library, was selected to create the grand building.
Over the course of a century and a half, the hotel has hosted many prominent guests—Princess Grace of Monaco, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Charlie Chaplin, to name a few—and afternoon tea was, according to hotel history, often a complement to their stay. Then as now, it’s served in one of the splendid Victorian drawing rooms, in the spacious foyer, or in the distinctive coffee rooms or lounges. On weekends or with large groups, it’s served beneath the gold-gilded ceiling of the Garden Room restaurant (€32).
Regardless of setting, the experience is delightful. On the day of my visit, I was honored to have as my server Martina O’Leary, “the face of afternoon tea” and an employee at the hotel for 44 years. Although technically not related, we discovered we had a number of things in common: she and all of her family attended the same small school outside of Killarney that my grandmother attended in the 1890s, and her husband’s great-aunt, a pastry chef at the Great Southern at the turn-of-the-century, was married to my grand-uncle. Their photo hangs in the Picture Room, the hotel’s archive of photography, and we shared a moment of nostalgia there before she returned to my table with her perfectly set tea stand.
The bottom tier, usually reserved for sandwiches, arrived with the requisite scones along with a bonus mini apple crumble tart and a cube of chocolate fondant cake. A warm-up, no doubt, to what lay ahead with the sweets offering: frangipane tarts, raspberry and strawberry mousse cake, lemon panna cotta, and a scrumptious, oversized shortbread cookie dusted with colorful sugar. The sandwiches, set on the second tier, were a nice mix of teatime favorites: ham and cheese with a tangy mustard dressing, egg mayonnaise (what Americans call egg salad) on a mini roll, chicken salad on a multigrain wrap, and the ubiquitous smoked salmon on housemade brown soda bread. The sandwiches surrounded an artfully arranged garnish of watercress, looking decidedly like a bunch of shamrocks! The hotel offers a selection of Ronnefeldt teas ranging from standards like Irish breakfast and Earl Grey to ones with more intense flavor such as Pai Mu Tan and Melon to Rooibos Cream Orange. Add a crisp Masehio die Cavalieri prosecco for a perfect finish (€9).
The Great Southern serves afternoon tea by reservation from Monday to Friday from 2:30 to 5:00 p.m.; on weekends, it’s served from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. A children’s tea is also available (€16).
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