Mount Congreve Gardens on Condé Nast top destination list

Published on November 15, this is an edit of the regions, cities and neighbourhoods in Ireland and the UK “that are worthy of your time and attention in the next 12 months”, according to the magazine.  

Condé Nast Traveller says of the list: “At the end of each year, we look ahead to what’s coming next in the travel world as we pick out the top destinations we’d recommend to our fellow globetrotters for the following 12 months. 

"Our expert contributors nominate the destinations that are on the up right now."

Of the 12 places on the list Waterford and Wexford are cited together as a southeast travel destination. This is the only Irish inclusion.

The listing details the newly refurbished Loftus Hall and its imminent opening, the oldest intact operating lighthouse in the world, Hook Lighthouse, Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore, the delicious seafood at The Beach House in Tramore and the magnificent Mount Congreve House and Gardens.

Mount Congreve House was home to six generations of Congreves and was built in the 1760s by the celebrated architect John Roberts and re-modelled in the 1960s.

Condé Nast contributor Aoife O’Riordan recommends a visit to the recently restored Mount Congreve House "overlooking the River Suir with dreamy gardens and a café run by The Pantry at CLIFF, a spin-off of Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore". "When the gates close, you will have the gardens all to yourself if you bed down at Mount Congreve’s fairytale gate lodge, which is available to rent, and the Waterford Greenway, an off-road hiking and biking trail along a disused railway line between Waterford City and Dungarvan, passes right by the edge of the estate,” she says. 

Sara Dolan, commercial director at Mount Congreve Trust, says, “We are absolutely thrilled to be listed in the Condé Nast top 2024 recommendations. We know that this guide and any list they produce is very discerning, so it is a dream come true to be selected and featured, especially in the first year of our opening.

"All of the team at Mount Congreve have worked very hard to achieve and deliver a very high standard of hospitality right across the gardens, the café, the house, the gate lodge and for our events, so it is a wonderful acknowledgement of their hard work.

"We have some more very exciting plans and further estate developments planned for 2024, so we won't be sitting on the garden laurels but moving on and pushing ahead to achieve even more in year two of the new chapter of the estate.” 

Earlier this month Mount Congreve Gardens also won the ‘Best Visitor Attraction’ at the Georgina Campbell Awards and has been selected as a winner in the 2023 World Garden Awards. The presentation of this award takes place next week.

Mount Congreve Gardens, along with the Stables Café and its onsite estate accommodation, is open year-round. 

• See Mountcongreve
• For the full  Condé Nast list see  CNTraveller