Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Ireland / Lisdoonvarna / Wild Honey Inn
Wild Honey Inn
Lisdoonvarna, County Clare, Ireland · Independent · Accessible Luxury
In 2018 Aidan McGrath's dining pub on the edge of the Burren became the first pub in Ireland to win a Michelin star. He and Kate Sweeney had opened Wild Honey Inn in 2009 inside a former Victorian hotel called Kincora House, and he held the star for eight years. In 2024, after 45 years at the stove, he stopped serving dinner, and thirteen antique-filled rooms remain in Lisdoonvarna from March to October, with the Burren at the door.
- 13 rooms
- Opened 2009
About Wild Honey Inn
- Kate and Aidan came from Belmullet in County Mayo. They bought the old hotel in hard times, and in 2009 Francis Brennan coached the new inn on RTÉ's At Your Service.
- A Michelin Bib Gourmand covered the pub from 2010 through 2017. The house remains the only pub in Ireland ever to have held the star that followed.
History
The building is a nineteenth-century hotel, later called Kincora House. Aidan McGrath and Kate Sweeney, from Belmullet in Mayo, opened Wild Honey Inn here in 2009 as a dining pub with rooms. A Bib Gourmand followed from 2010, and the 2018 Michelin guide gave them the first star ever awarded to a pub in Ireland. He kept it for eight years. In 2024 he stopped dinner service, and the house turned to its rooms and to breakfast.
The setting
Lisdoonvarna, the old sulphur-spa town on the edge of the Burren. The inn points guests on toward Doolin, the Cliffs of Moher, the Aran Islands, and the Burren National Park once breakfast is done.
Experiences
- Burren Geopark exploration on foot or by bicycle — The Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark can be explored on foot or by bicycle.
- Wild Atlantic Way Discovery Points — The Wild Atlantic Way's 180 Discovery Points can be explored along the coast.
Awards
- Michelin Star (2018)
Open Wild Honey Inn in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.
More hotels in Lisdoonvarna
- Sheedy's Country House Hotel — Independent · Accessible Luxury