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.
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.
Or 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 (later The 
Burnaby pub), The Grand Hotel (later The La Touche Hotel, later still, a ghost), Lewis’s Central Hotel, Silver Springs, The Cliff House Hotel up on Bray Head, The Delgany Inn, The Lawless Hotel (now The Horse & Hound), and The Golf Hotel on Portland Road, now the private Burnaby House…
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
Carraig Eden 1977
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 Railway Hotel 1947
Railway Hotel 1890s before McFarland’s with Buona Vista (later Frank Clarke’s) and the Buckleys’ South View (later The Hungry Monk)
Railway Hotel Church Road. Colourised.
The Golf Hotel, now Burnaby House, Portland Road
Class…
Woodlands Hotel 1971
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
Killincarrig House Woodlands Hotel 1960s. Image: Colin Short
Killincarrig House Woodlands Hotel 1960s. Image: Colin Short
The derelict Woodlands Hotel gutted by fire 12th September 1993
The Delgany Hotel 1955 Ms O Nuallain honeymoons with her parents. Source: her son Bob.
The Delgany Inn – pre-awards fever
The Delgany Inn before all that dough
The Cliff House Hotel 1978, run by the notorious Kopek clan. Guests including Stanley Baker and Tommy Steeel in 1966, John Alderton, Pauline Collins and Peter Sellers in 1970
Grand Hotel LD Paskins postcard 1915 with the Greystones Tennis Club still just a field
Horse & Hound c1900
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 Hotel postcard c1914
Seapatrick private hotel (later Castle Clare Nursing Home). Source: Derek Paine
The Blackrock Express leaves The Grand…
La Touche staff 1969-’70. Pic: Joe Moore
Grand Hotel staff, including Margaret Fleming, Miss Loughnane & friends circa 1950. Source: James Hendrick
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
The Glenview Hotel keeps on truckin’…
Glenview Hotel: The Early Years. Source: John Hinde Studios
Sugar Loaf & Glenview Hotel 1950s Postcard
La Touche Hotel Apartments Sept 2020
7 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.
Bellissime foto bravo Paolo sei unico
Great set of photos. Well done