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Capella Castlemartyr

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Guests receive pre-calls to confirm likes, dislikes, and arrange for special requests. The hotel is part of Capella Hotels and Resorts, headed by Horst Schulze formerly of Ritz Carlton. It sells itself as a country-house hotel, but only 11 rooms are in the original 17th-centruy block; a lumbering addition has 98. And apart from a fluffy Rococo buttercream ceiling, the old section is not even very distinguished. It feels too much like the Carmelite boys' school it previously was. Granted, the boys didn't have a chef standing by to cook their catch, Waterford tumblers on the night tables, carriage rides, Lady Primrose bath gel, Pratesi linens, Wedgewood china...