The Merrion

Lord Monck built the four houses on Upper Merrion Street in the 1760s and lived at No. 22. In 1769 No. 24 was leased to Garrett Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, later the first Professor of Music at Trinity College, and it is recognised as the birthplace of his son Arthur, the first Duke of Wellington. For most of the twentieth century the houses were state offices, and the writer Flann O'Brien is said to have worked in them.

Restoration of the Grade I listed terrace began in October 1995, and the hotel opened in 1997. A Garden Wing was added behind, around two period gardens laid out by Jim Reynolds. Inside hangs a private collection of Irish art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from Jack B. Yeats and Paul Henry to Mainie Jellett and William Scott. Martin Mooney painted the murals on the main stairwell.

• Patrick Guilbaud The first restaurant in Ireland to hold two Michelin stars, now in the Main House, with Roderic O'Conor paintings in its O'Conor Room.
• Art Afternoon Tea Pastries by Paul Kelly modelled on paintings in the collection, served in the Georgian Drawing Rooms by the log fires.
• The spa An 18-metre infinity pool, six treatment rooms, a steam room and a gym.