Hotel review: The Shelbourne Hotel Dublin, Ireland

When it comes to luxury hotels in Dublin, the Shelbourne Hotel Dublin is one of the best. A home away from home for royalty, politicians and rock stars … and occasional strays like me, it has a five-star pedigree, a lively social scene and a fascinating past. Here’s my review.

A Shelbourne Hotel Dublin Review

I waltzed into the cream-coloured lobby of the Shelbourne Hotel past doormen in top hats, pale gilt-tipped columns and crystal chandeliers. Checking in I discreetly looked around hoping to see some sort of James Bond action going on. After all, Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore have all stayed at this 5-star Dublin hotel, and who knows how many unnamed actual spies stayed here during the wars?

We do know that during World War II the writer Elizabeth Bowen was known to file top secret reports to Winston Churchill based on intel she’d gathered here over the hotel’s Afternoon Tea, and if that’s not a hotbed of scone-centred excitement I don’t know what is.

An Irish hotel with a past

A lot has gone on at the Shelbourne over the years. The Irish Constitution (Bunreacht na hÉireann) was first drafted here in 1922. The room (112) it happened in is now called the Constitution Suite and is probably the most famous banqueting room in Dublin.

With a prime position on the northern end of St Stephen’s Green, the Shelbourne Hotel has attracted the crème de la crème of society since it first opened in 1824 (present company excepted). To me the elegant exterior looks a bit like a frosted layer cake, but to describe it properly let me just add that it’s a Renaissance style made of red brick and Portland stone and embellished with ivory-coloured stucco.

Jazzing up the refined lines are the somewhat surprising granite pedestals at the entrance that hold the torch-bearing bronze figures of two Egyptian princesses and two Nubian slave girls, a quartet that has been referred to – but not by me – as the last four virgins in Dublin.

Rooms at the Shelbourne

After I put my bags in my Queen Room, which, while very nice with its Rivolta Carmignani Egyptian cotton sheets and and neutral beige colour scheme, does not have the spacious allure of Suite 270, a favourite of the late Princess Grace of Monaco and now known as the Princess Grace Suite. Sadly, my budget didn’t nearly come close.

Neither was I in the Tonga Suite where John F. Kennedy stayed with his wife Jacqueline in 1958. I wasn’t even in a Heritage Park Room or a …. Oh, shut up, I told myself. You’re in one of the most fabulous hotels in Ireland.

Anyway, I wasn’t here because of the room. I was here because the hotel is where James Cagney once danced on the grand piano, where Peter O’Toole bathed in champagne and where comedian Oliver Hardy’s ample bottom got hopelessly lodged in a chair. I was here because the Shelbourne Hotel is one of those bucket list places to stay that ranks with any luxury hotel in the world.

Ghostly hauntings

I wasn’t going to see any celebrity antics by sitting in my room so I rooted through my luggage searching for something impressive to wear (as in not too wrinkled) and got ready to go downstairs. Although, I supposed, as I freshened up in the white and grey marble bathroom, it’s possible the ghost of Mary Masters, a young girl who died from cholera might make an appearance. According to Lily Collins, the Hollywood actor and daughter of musician Phil Collins, seven-year-old Mary paid her a visit while she (Lily, not the ghost) stayed at the Shelbourne while filming The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. By all accounts Mary is more mischievous than malevolent and since I wasn’t in room 526 where she’s been said to appear, I was probably all right.

The Horseshoe Bar

I wouldn’t mind a few unexpected appearances however. Like maybe the Chieftains, one of Ireland’s top bands, could show up at the hotel’s Horseshoe Bar as it’s where they came up with the idea for the band. Then there were the literary greats such as William Makepeace Thackery and Rudyard Kipling who also once patronized the Horseshoe Bar. Who knows what future greats I could run into there?

The problem was that I’d decided to swan around the hotel at an off time. The Horseshoe wasn’t yet open and Afternoon Tea in the Lord Mayor’s Lounge was completely sold out. I would have opted for the pre theatre dinner at the very posh Saddle Room but it didn’t open until 5:30 and the No. 27 Lounge wasn’t available – possibly for a private function. I explained to the very kindly staff that I needed to eat a meal at this unlikely hour because I was, er, hungry.

“Are you a guest here?” they asked.

“I am.”

Those were the magic words. Somehow I was found a table and a menu. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t in the Princess Grace Suite or hadn’t drafted the Irish Constitution after all. Just being a guest at the Shellbourne had found me a seat in the house.