Historical drama: Carton House brings the past to life and into a new era

As the Kildare hotel gets set to reopen, designer/architect Martin Spillane tells us about its two-year refurbishment

The day I visited it was in March 2018 in the middle of a snowstorm. Everything was white all around it and you saw this great hulking grey mass of stone sitting up above the snow. That was my first introduction to Carton and it has such a strange light when there’s snow on the ground because it bounces up and lights up the amazing ceilings in the property.”

Martin Spillane, a director of McCauley ...