Covid-19 lockdown: 'The deer in the forest have been roaming around the lawn'

Keeping mothballed properties in good nick during lockdown has been difficult and at times ever-so-eerie for some of those tasked with the job.

Hotels across the island of Ireland have had their doors shut to holidaymakers for almost five months now, but the task of keeping them polished, cobweb-free and maintained has been continuing.

And often with just a handful of staff.

For Seán McEvoy, general manager of Ardtara Country House hotel in County Londonderry, it's a draining activity even if working hours are reduced and responsibilities eased.

He says coming into a hotel devoid of guests for such a long period has been eerie and "surprisingly tiring when you're coming in for a four or five-hour shift".

"We're used to doing 10 or 12 hour shifts, and you're busy and you get through it. It's very strange. I'd much rather come in and do a busy shift and get people in, make them happy, see them to bed or out of the building and know my work is done," he says.

The nine-bedroom 120-year-old hotel in Upperlands has kept just a very small number of staff on duty, with the remainder placed on furlough.

And that's included operating a rota system to have someone bed down and stay overnight.

Seán says the first time he left home to go and hold the fort at Ardtara his partner pointed out he had never before stayed there on his own overnight.

"I said: 'Thank you very much for pointing that out to me just before I leave to go to the big house in the middle of nowhere at 10 o'clock in the night'," he recalls.

Tasks have included cleaning, running baths and showers on a regular basis to keep the water flowing, and keeping the gas on to keep heat in the property.

"We wear many hats here at the moment. General manager just means a glorified cleaner. You can't bring staff in, so we're doing a bit ourselves to keep on top of it.

"During the first lockdown last year we made the most of it, and did a lot of work inside the hotel. This time we've had people working in the gardens, including companies brought in.

"It makes it easy when you have no guests if you want to go out with a chainsaw or a digger, that you're not disturbing any guests who have come away for a few days rest and relaxation. You have to look for the silver lining."

The good news for Ardtara and hotels across Northern Ireland is that they now have an indicative date for reopening - 24 May.

New dates have been agreed by Stormont ministers, with unlicensed and licensed premises such as restaurants, beer gardens, and cafes allowed to reopen outdoors from 30 April, and indoor hospitality venues, including pubs and hotels, in May.

For Seán, it can't come soon enough. The staff are now focused on getting the property ready for guests, rather than simply keeping it humming along.

He jokes that he is so keen to talk to outsiders that prospective guests phoning up are engaged in longer than usual conversations.

He says he's had three phone calls with one customer in recent weeks that lasted 55 minutes in total.

"We're good mates now. I'm sure she thinks I sound like a lovely chap," he says.

Across the border in the Republic of Ireland, there are no dates, as yet, for the reopening of hospitality.

At the 97-bedroom Lough Eske Castle Hotel just outside Donegal Town, toilets are being flushed and baths run every two weeks, while hot plates and cookers are tested once a week.

"Last year, during the first lockdown, this was a new experience and to a degree we were excited about what we were going to achieve," says general manager Dónal Cox.

"But after the first month, you find yourself looking around and nothing is happening. I've been here since 2011 and it's been constant go. For that just to all go away for a sustained period, has just been weird."

Like Ardtara, the hotel is never left empty.

"This is an old castle that's over 130 years old, and the scariest thing is when you're here overnight and the lift comes down to the ground floor and nobody comes out of it," he laughs.

"But you just get immune to it. There are these bumps and noises, and you just ignore it."

One of the more remarkable aspects of lockdown for Dónal has been how nature has moved that little bit closer to the front of the hotel, which is set on 43 acres of mostly forest.

"The deer in the forest have been roaming around the lawn, and you never would have seen that before," he says.

"There are large groups of hare having a jamboree every evening on the lawn in the front here, and up close to the property there are now wood pigeons that have nested in trees besides windows and they would never normally have come that close.

"Nature is encroaching on us."

The staff have been keeping busy with organising maintenance jobs and redecorating in preparation for a reopening date.

"Bathrooms are being retiled and in the bedrooms we're resurfacing table tops. It looks like a building site in the middle of the afternoon here, but these things will be great when we reopen for our guests."

Self-catering accommodation can reopen in Northern Ireland from Friday, so Lord and Lady Nicholas Hamilton, owners of Belle Isle Castle and estate in County Fermanagh, are gearing up for a busy few months.

The castle accommodation must remain closed until May, but the self-catering apartments can reopen on 30 April.

The sprawling 470-acre estate dates to the 12th century, although the first house was built there in the 17th century. The Duke of Abercorn bought the estate in the 1990s for his son, Nicholas Hamilton, an artist in New York.

He and his wife, Tatiana, moved back to a house on the estate from the United States with their two children last year.

"We live in the walled garden, which we have been busy re-establishing," says Lady Tatiana.

"We have been using these lockdowns to really reinvest in the property. The walled garden, with its ancient wall around it, we have re-established vegetable beds and erected a Polytunnel outside of it.

"It's like The Secret Garden," she laughs, referring to the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

"When we first arrived, it was untouched for many years and there were beautiful apple trees and plum trees, but the vegetable patch had been abandoned.

"The hope is that next year we can use the vegetables for castle guests."

Lady Tatiana says they have used lockdown to do some much needed maintenance work around the estate, including refurbishing bathrooms and resurfacing the driveway.

"My husband has been very much involved in maintaining it. Luckily, during lockdown in the winter months, there hasn't been much grass cutting, but there has been a lot of hands on," she says.

The various properties on the estate, including the castle, have been locked for most of the time, but they have been getting a deep-clean in recent weeks.

Lady Tatiana says the family lived in the castle for a period last year.

And what was castle life like?

"It was very warm and it was really lovely to spread out," she says.

"We have two children and they each had big rooms and we had the fireplace going. In Belle Isle you have two wings- the large Hamilton wing and the Abercorn wing, so we stayed in the smaller wing, which was more contained."