The Clarence, Dublin, Ireland

The Clarence boutique hotel in Dublin, Ireland is given immediate cachet by the fact that it’s owned by two members of U2, Bono and the Edge. “The boys,” as the staff fondly call them, stay here when they’re in town.

The facilities

Inside, The Clarence is arrestingly unique. It has been a boutique hotel since the 1850s, when it was a favourite resting place for clergymen and nuns. When “the boys” bought the boutique hotel and refurbished it completely in 1996, they stuck with this ecclesiastical theme. The results are cathedral-high ceilings, limestone floors, gorgeously solemn arts-and-crafts windows that flood the sitting room with light and plenty of pale oak panelling. The low leather bucket seats are in the jewel colours of a cardinal’s robes: crimson and royal blue and purple and chocolate. Modish sculptural lighting matches the flower arrangements and the huge, muted modern paintings on the walls. Considering it was designed ten years ago, it has aged amazingly well - but then again so have U2.

Follow a hallway through to the Temple Bar side of the boutique hotel to find the eight-sided Octagon Bar, below its octagonal dome, where an eclectic collection of Dubliners come to eat, drink and gossip in the bar’s tiny snug. The Tea Room restaurant is in what was the original ballroom – it’s rather like a chapel, with another soaring ceiling, streaming light, white oak, whiter linen and private dining in a minstrel’s gallery.

The rooms

The Clarence’s 48 rooms are more contemporary than the rest of the boutique hotel but have the same high levels of detail in their custom-made features, like the light fittings. There are witty touches playing on the church theme – stained glass bedside lamps, coloured glass in the candle sconces on the walls. Beds and furniture are Shaker-style in the same white oak as elsewhere in the house – big, solid, comfortable, piled with white linen. As you would imagine, music systems are absolutely top-notch. Smart bathrooms have over-tub showers and pots of custom-blended aromatherapy gels and lotions.

Rooms at the back of the boutique hotel have little balconies that give a view over Temple Bar, with the sea to your left and Guinness land to your right. Light sleepers: it’s probably worth keeping in mind that Temple Bar is where Dublin comes to party; you may do better with a room at the front facing the Liffey. Better still, take the sexy duplex penthouse: two master bedrooms with their own baths, a living room, a dining room, a full kitchen and a blow-out full-length loft with baby grand piano, bar and hot tub outside on the roof terrace. Now that’s rock’n’roll!