THE history of two well-known boutique hotels in Donegal were shipped to Canada last year in beautiful leather-bound volumes as a thank you gesture to a generous benefactor.
The fascinating projects ‘A History of the Highlands Hotel’ and ‘A History of the Lake House Hotel’ were researched and written by Tom Plunkett, Principal, St Conal’s NS, Narin.
One of the books, A History of the Highlands Hotel, was the subject of a favourable review in last Saturday’s edition of the Irish Times.
“Well researched and written with affection, this gem of a book tells the story of that hotel and the town of Glenties, Co Donegal from the 1800s to the present,” the reviewer, Breandán MacSuibhne, wrote.
Speaking to the Donegal News this week, Tom Plunkett explained how the idea for the books – which were never a commercial venture – came about.
“The two books were written as a thank-you gesture from the Board of Management at St Conal’s National School to the late David N. Harvey, the owner of both the Highlands and Lake House Hotels. He was an extremely generous benefactor to St. Conal’s N.S. in Narin, Portnoo and it was thanks primarily to him that the school managed to replace all the wooden windows and doors in 2019,” Mr Plunkett explained.
“How do you thank a man like that – a millionaire? I like local history and I knew that he had recently purchased the Lake House Hotel and the Highlands Hotel so I decided to research both hotels.
“The books were never a commercial venture, being merely a gesture of appreciation to a kind individual who had a substantial involvement in education matters in his native Canada,” he added.
The late Mr Harvey, who worked in the employee benefits field for over 45 years, joined Benefit Plan Administrators Limited (BPA) in 1985 and acquired the company in 1988.
As well as buying the two hotels in Donegal, he previously built the Stepping Stone in Dungloe (which incorporated the Daniel O’Donnell museum) and the Thatch bar in Glenties.
“I spent three years researching the books before pulling it all together last Easter (2019). We made two leather bound presentation volumes and shipped them to Canada while I also had some soft cover magazine copies of the books made for contributors.
“I left a few copies in the County Library but they never went on general sale. Somehow a copy must have made its way to Breandán (MacSuibhne) and I’m delighted that he did a little review for the Irish Times.
“It was a way for the school to thank David Harvey for his generous contribution. Thankfully, he got the books before he passed away and I received a lovely note from his wife (Nola) to say that he had read them and enjoyed them,” the school principal said.
“We had managed to gather €15,000 in donations before Mr Harvey wrote out a cheque which allowed us to replace all 43 wooden windows and three doors in the school with PVC double glazing. It’s made the school that much warmer and will be there for years to come. It’s a great legacy,” he added.
Before Mr Harvey’s welcome intervention the school were only going to replace the windows on one side of the building.
“I believe he (Mr Harvey) first came over here to play golf with a friend from Donegal and he fell in love with Narin. He bought a holiday home and starting buying hotels and other properties.
“He gave employment to many local people and his death is a big loss to the area. I’m glad that we got the books to him in time,” he said.
Information contained in the books was garnered from old newspaper archives, including those from the Donegal News.
The Lake House, which was a private house until the 1960s, was originally a Church of Ireland house in the 1800s. Mr Plunkett said that it was owned by the Boyle family in more recent years (Master Boyle was the principal of Kilclooney NS) before it was converted into a hotel in 1967.
“It’s still owned by the Harvey family today as far as I’m aware,” Mr Plunkett said.
The Highlands Hotel was built as a guest house for the Marquis of Conyngham (The current Marquis is Henry Mountcharles (Slane Castle)) who were the biggest landowners in Ireland with over 120,000 acres at that time.
“They owned all of Glenties. Traditionally from Mountcharles – they ended up getting Slane Castle because they were on the right side of the Battle of the Boyne – they needed a holiday home to come to do their fishing and shooting. They eventually built a lodge for themselves in a house that Malachy McCloskey now lives in beside the Court House – which they also built – as well as the Market Hall (still in regular use as a Community Centre). They basically built the town of Glenties.
“In 1882, the Lodge became a fully-fledged hotel, leased and operated by Patrick O’Donnell and it was called O’Donnell’s Hotel until 1942 when it was bought and briefly re-named as Hamill’s Hotel by Josephine Hamill from Belfast. It was sold to a local chemist, Dominick Sweeney from Drimarone (builder of St. Dominick’s Hall) who re-named it the Highlands Hotel (a previous establishment in the town had also had this name and is today known as Brennan’s Bed and Breakfast). Mr. Sweeney sold it in 1948 to John Boyle, whose family owned it until 2016 when it was bought by a Canadian business-man, the late David N. Harvey. He funded a major refurbishment of the hotel which was completed just before his death in October 2019,” Mr Plunkett said.
The author may be contacted at tplunkett@stconals.ie should anyone be interested in the history of these two fine hotels.
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere
SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT EDITION TODAY
and get access to our archive editions dating back to 2007(CLICK ON THE TITLE BELOW TO SUBSCRIBE)