On the Rugged Coast of Ireland, a New 'Landscape Hotel' that Puts the Focus on the Outside

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Increasingly, vacation time is doing double-duty as a nature fix, an opportunity to be immersed in plants and nature for immediate decompression and reconnection. At Native, a destination on the beautiful wild coast of West Cork in Ireland, they’ve fashioned a new term for it: “a landscape hotel,” where vegetation is not mere dressing but an integral part of the experience.

Founders Simon and Didi Ronan, who moved to West Cork from Dublin in 2021, spent three years looking for a site before finding (with some help from the local community after another purchase fell through) an overgrown derelict dairy farm. Simon, head of sustainable landscape studio SRLA, is originally from Wexford, while Didi is Irish but grew up in Belgium. Both have spent time living and working in London and Paris before relocating to Ireland. Part of the attraction to the area was the lively local scene; the village of Ballydehob on the Wild Atlantic Way, is home to a bohemian and arty scene with one of Ireland’s finest live music venues, Levi’s Corner House, as well as a Michelin-starred restaurant, Chestnut.

Since the opening of their guesthouse last year (the rooms can be booked individually or the whole house can be taken over), the couple have added three garden suites, each with their own private garden and outdoor bath (and for the largest suite, its own sauna too). In addition there’s the Milking Parlour, a communal event and dining space where they plan to stage supper clubs that will showcase the area’s incredible local produce, from foraged plants to artisan cheeses.

Outside the focus is on pollinator-friendly plants. Thanks to the North Atlantic Drift, this south-westerly point of Ireland enjoys warm air and water that arrives from the Gulf of Mexico. It provides a damp and temperate climate, and as a result, more opportunities for growing. The site also lies in a natural east–west valley, sheltering it from prevailing winds.

But their project stretches much farther than the 2.5-acre site that surrounds the guesthouse and garden suites. Twenty percent of the profits from the business is used to rewild a 75-acre site, just 10 minutes from Native and open to guests. Here, the couple has been eradicating invasive non-natives and allowing the land to regenerate.

Let’s take a closer look.

Photography courtesy of Native.