The Dublin hotel where a two-night stay feels like a 10-day holiday

How I love hotels that exude a sense of place, order, continuity and peace, where all the elements – comfort, service, food – are in harmony, and where often a benign captain can be found steering the ship gracefully down the years.

The Merrion is one of these, the sort of place where a two-night stay feels like a 10-day holiday. Throw in a superb collection of 19th- and 20th-century art, probably the best food in the Emerald Isle, and a new spa, and there really is nothing to complain about.

I mean it as a compliment when I say that the Merrion seems much older than its 25 years. “We’re aiming for the duck-crossing-a-pond effect,” says Peter McCann, who has run the hotel with a mix of dry wit and unflappable dedication for all of those years.

I bought one of those DNA ancestry testing kits recently and I’m waiting to hear if I might be a bit Irish: my husband is convinced of it and I really hope it’s true, because whenever I visit, a -little bit of magic seems to happen.

I woke early in the sort of bedroom that never fails to please: unshowy, elegant, classically comfortable, thoughtfully equipped. It’s resolutely traditional (no exposed brick here), so if contemporary style is your thing, look elsewhere.

History on the doorstep

After a splendid breakfast, I met James Joyce expert and Dublin guide Niels Caul, who took me, in this centenary year of the publication of Ulysses, on a walk in the footsteps of Leopold Bloom. Pausing in a dozen locations described in the great tome, Niels expressively read aloud the relevant passages from his well-thumbed copy and in so doing brought alive the day on which the book’s stream of consciousness unfolds (June 16, 1904) and the story of Leopold and Molly Bloom.
Does Leopold, making himself scarce, win back Molly after her liaison with “Blazes” Boylan? We both think so. It was a magical, moving and wonderfully Irish morning, and at the end, it was heaven to return to the embrace of the Merrion (walking tours can be arranged through the hotel’s concierge).

The Merrion stands opposite the handsome Government Buildings and is made up of four fine 18th-century townhouses, in one of which the Duke of Wellington was born. Its two large draw-ing rooms, with open fires, are decorated in sober good taste, enlivened by remarkable paintings. The bright Garden Room restaurant adds a contemporary feel, in contrast with the dark, cosy Cellar Bar.

An impressive art collection

So many hotels strive to concoct “experiences” to keep their guests amused, but here they are all simply part and parcel of the place. A guided walk is one delight; another is the superbly presented audio guide to the art collection (Paul Henry’s Killary Harbour and Mainie Jellet’s Madonna and Child are two of my favourites). The tour concludes in the lovely courtyard garden, graced by a remarkable bronze statue of James Joyce, which is also a sundial, by Dublin sculptor Rowan Gillespie.

As the sun moves, Joyce’s shadow falls on a series of engraved quotations from the book, showing us what Bloom is up to at each hour of the day. While you gaze at the statue, you can listen to Gillespie tell the story of how the work was commissioned by a Jesuit university in the US, then rejected because they professed themselves “shocked, absolutely shocked” by some of the quotations from Ulysses. Instead, it was bought by Lochlann Quinn, co-founder of the Merrion, who is also responsible for the art collection.

A brimful of Irish enchantment

As for the food in the Garden Room, it’s very good indeed, and there’s another restaurant, gastronomic hotspot Patrick Guilbaud, which has two Michelin stars. The restaurant exudes the same duck-on-the-pond calm as the hotel, and lunch there was a special treat. While I ate, my phone pinged to tell me that I had a new grandson. That Irish enchantment at work again.

And then there’s the new spa, with its beautiful blue mosaic pool, which I had to myself for nearly an hour in yet another display of Merrion magic, plus sauna, steam room, gym and treatment rooms. After a blissful spell in the caring hands of Antonella and a spectacular Biologique Recherche facial, I felt renewed, brimming with the sort of boundless enthusiasm displayed by Molly Bloom in the closing pages of Ulysses. To pinch her favourite word and apply it to the Merrion: “Yes!”

How to do it

Doubles from ￡260; breakfast from ￡20. Upper Merrion Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. 00 353 1 603 0600; merrionhotel.com

Tourism Ireland (00 353 1 476 3400; tourismireland.com) has more information on a city break to Dublin.

For more travel inspiration, read Telegraph Travel's guide to the best hotels in Dublin.