EnniskeenCountry House Hotel · Shimna Valley
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The estate · Twelve acres

Twelve wooded acres above the Shimna.

The gardens look over Slieve Donard — Northern Ireland's highest mountain — and out to the Irish Sea, with wildlife roaming the grounds.

Walks from the door
A country house in a wooded Mourne estate
The estate

The woodland trail

Past the Wishing Well, down to the river.

Enniskeen House has a beautiful twelve-acre estate to explore — take a stroll along the woodland trail past the picturesque Wishing Well, then find a quiet spot by the Shimna River, bring a picnic, and let the world go by.

A woodland path beside a river in the Mourne foothills
On the trail

The grounds

The twelve acres, drawn.

The drive in off the Bryansford Road, the house and its turret, the lawns below the terrace, and the trail that leaves the gardens for the woods, passes the Wishing Well and comes out on the Shimna.

AI-generated artworkIndicative plan drawn from the hotel's description of the grounds — the order a guest meets them, not a survey.
  • Bryansford Road
  • Enniskeen HouseTwelve wooded acres
  • Lawn & gardens
  • The Wishing Well
  • The Shimna River
  • Slieve Donard
  • Newcastle & the Irish Sea
A woodland path beside a river in the Mourne foothills
On the woodland trail
Enniskeen Country House Hotel — rendered gabled façade, turret and ivy
The house in period

Since the 1890s

Built on tobacco, rope and linen.

Enniskeen House was built in the late 1890s by R.W. Murray, principal of the Murray Sons & Co. tobacco house ('Erinmore', 'Murray's Mellow Mixture') and a director of Belfast Ropeworks — then the biggest rope maker in the world.

The house later passed to linen manufacturer H. Liddell, whose table linens dressed the finest dining rooms aboard RMS Titanic — including the Captain's table. In the 1960s the house became a hotel.

A hundred and thirty years

How the house got here.

  1. Late 1890s

    Built for a tobacco man

    R.W. Murray — principal of the Murray Sons & Co. tobacco house behind 'Erinmore' and 'Murray's Mellow Mixture', and a director of the Belfast Ropeworks, then the biggest rope maker in the world — builds Enniskeen House above the Shimna Valley.

  2. The linen years

    Table linen for the Titanic

    The house passes to linen manufacturer H. Liddell, whose table linens dressed the finest dining rooms aboard RMS Titanic — including the Captain's table.

  3. 1960s

    The house becomes a hotel

    Enniskeen opens its doors as a country house hotel, keeping the rooms individually styled — the turret room, the pink art-deco bathroom — rather than matching them to one another.

  4. Today

    Family-run, twelve acres

    Twelve wooded acres, the woodland trail past the Wishing Well down to the Shimna, and the Brandy Pad Lounge — named for the old smugglers' route through the Mournes above the house.