
The very Grand Hotel
t is, of course, shocking that Greystones doesn’t have a hotel today – an error that should, all things going to plan, be sorted within the next year. Or ten.
In the meantime, let’s take a look back at those years when Greystones had as many hotels as it now does coffee shops.
The Seapatrick Hotel, The Clyda (later The Woodlands Hotel), The Braemar, The Trenarren Hotel, The Railway Hotel, The Grand Hotel (later The La Touche Hotel, later still, a ghost), Lewis’s Central Hotel, Coolnagreina, Silver Springs, and now Burnaby House on Portland Road, The Golf Hotel…
And we have to give a nod to the nearby Glenview, the only surviving, full-blown hotel in the area. If you don’t count the Christian hostel Coolnagreina, or boutique abodes Hunter’s Hotel and The Horse & Hound, of course.
Bejiggers, once up a time, our hotel list went on, and on…
Let’s hope there’s another name on that list in the not-too-distant future…

Helen Magee’s work in progress July 2017

La Touche Hotel 1970s postcard

La Touche Hotel Mary kate Hardy 18th April 2016

La Touche June 2005 Pic Eamon Flynn

Grand Hotel Trafalgar Road Postcard. Source: unknown

Grand Hotel Trafalgar Road 1911 Valentine postcard

A Grand view on Trafalgar Road 1950. Colourised by GG.

Grand Hotel Postcard. Source: Dr Gestenberg

Grand Hotel looking very grand. Source: Derek Paine

Early ad for The Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel. Source: Milton Postcard

Grand Hotel Horse & Cart Source Patrick Neary

The Grand Hotel early 1900s

La Touche Hotel vintage postcard

La Touche Hotel’s lawn tennis. Source: ebay.

The Grand Hotel towering over the Cove. Nice.

Grand Hotel vintage postcard 1919 postmark

Grand Hotel by Jotter – vintage 1907 Reynard Series postcard

Grand Hotel 1961. Pic Dr Gestenberg

Grand Hotel postcard. Source Unknown

The Grand Race

The Grand Race colourised by GG

Grand Hotel Robert French

Grand Hotel by Robert French. Colourised by GG.

A Grand Day Out. Colourised by GG.

Grand Hotel, Greystones circa 1940. Source: The Eason Collection

Greystones Trafalgar Road Robert French

Colourised by GG

A little more detail…

Trafalgar Road High Noon. Colourised by GG

Grand Hotel aerial view 1948 postcard. Colourised by GG.

Grand Hotel. The Eason Collection

View From The Flagstaff

La Touche Hotel Pic Liam Clare

Grand Hotel New Year’s Eve Ball 1920 Irish Times ad

Trafalgar Road feat Central Hotel with petrol pumps 1930s

Lewis’s Central Hotel with petrol pump visible

Central Hotel with Ferns & McKenzie’s. Colourised.

Lewis’s Central Hotel [where St Brigid’s is now]

Lewis’s Hotel – which was situated opposite the Presbyterian Church

Railway Hotel (now The Burnaby)

The Golf Hotel, now Burnaby House, Portland Road

Killincarrick House [built 1860s] later Clyda Hotel, then The Woodlands Hotel

The Clyda Hotel, later Woodlands Hotel

Woodlands Hotel Postcard. Source: ebay

Woodlands Hotel 1960s postcard

The Delgany Inn – pre-awards fever

The Delgany Inn before all that dough

The Cliff House Hotel, run by the notorious Kopek clan

Grand Hotel postcard LD Paskins

Grand Hotel Robert French

Lawless Hotel – now The Horse & Hound

Newell’s Hotel, Delgany – now The Wicklow Arms

Newel’s Hotel, new angle, same horse…

Wicklow Arms Postcard

The Orchard Inn Killincarrig Source Jamie McDonald

Braemar Hotel makes the news…

Brooklands House, Trafalgar Rd – once almost bought by Michael Collins

Seapatrick Hotel, a nursing home from 1962. A Milton postcard.

Seapatrick with a little GG colourisation in its cheeks

The Bewley family’s Seapatrick Hotel (now Greystones Nursing Home)

Seapatrick private hotel (later Castle Clare Nursing Home). Source: Derek Paine

The Blackrock Express leaves The Grand…

The Gorman family’s Braemar Hotel at Sidmonton & Trafalgar

The Trenarren Hotel (now private apartments)

The YWCA at Coolnagreina does croquet circa 1920

Coolnagreina does colour

YWCA Coolnagreina Holiday Home Postcard

Greystones Railway Hotel postcard Sean Tierney

Glenview Hotel: The Early Years. Source: John Hinde Studios

Sugar Loaf & Glenview Hotel 1950s Postcard

La Touche Hotel Apartments Sept 2020
6 comments
Great collection of photos. I wonder what “Saturday Cinderellas free to hotel visitors” entail exactly? Some sort of right to avail of the dancing past midnight if you are resident?
Fabulous photos. Brings back so many memories. I lived in Greystones from 1960 until 1986. Worked in the La Touche during summers in the middle to late 1970s. Moved to Canada in 1989! Went to St. David’s.
So interesting… well done Paul and thanks for sharing.
Great photographs, fabulous collection. Thanks for sharing.
Laurence P writes… My wife and myself worked at the Woodlands Hotel for a few weeks in June 1970. I have a clear recollection of the owner saying we should go for a swim in the pool in the gardens on our day off……..when we went the gardener told us it had been closed for years!
He also had the odd late night piano session boom boom boom……but the main recollection was that there were no guests and the staff were there purely to cater for the owner.
Great set of photos. Well done