The Jewel Lodge and Spa is a dream come true for its founders, sisters Aiveen and Keelin,who wanted to give people a haven to which they can escape from their busy lives – whether for a few days or for just a few hours.
The Jewel, nestled on the hillside of Glengarriff, West Cork, offers just that, with its luxurious accommodation and its gemstone in the middle, the stunning outdoor Riverside Spa.
The beautiful coastal town of Glengarriff holds a special place in the hearts of Aiveen and Keelin, who have a life-long association with this picturesque part of West Cork.
The sisters were brought up in Blarney, 20 minutes outside Cork City, but their father, Seán, was from Bantry, a short drive from Glengarriff. And so, as well as visiting their mother Moira’s side of the family in Co. Sligo, Aiveen and Keelin (as well as their siblings Darragh and Thrina) would spend the bulk of their summers camping at Eagle Point campsite in Ballylickey, just outside Glengarriff. Their love affair with West Cork started almost literally from birth and it was nurtured throughout their childhood.
Their story in adulthood is one of dreams and determination, joy and heartache, and all of the complexities and extremes that come not only with starting a business, but with raising families. And so they are immensely proud that years of hard work have culminated in a family business: The Jewel Lodge and Spa.
Keelin worked in banking from the age of 21 but she always harboured aspirations of opening a wellness spa. She spent years training in massage, reiki, reflexology, meditation, always with the inkling that she would like to work in the alternative health space. This was partly due to being diagnosed with Crohns Disease in her early 20s and discovering that she was allergic to all medication typically used to treat the disease. “Though it was tough at the time”, Keelin says, “it was really a blessing in disguise because I had to go and look for an alternative approach to life to cope with, and to recover from, the disease.” Keelin currently lives in Maynooth, Co. Kildare with her husband, Donal, and their two sons Cathal, 21, and Cian, 18.
Aiveen was happily married to her gorgeous Dominic in Rochestown, Co. Cork, where they raised three children: Gavan, 32, Liadh, 28, and Riona, 19. Ríona was only five when Dominic died in 2010, less than three months after being diagnosed with Leukaemia. “It was devastating for us all”, Aiveen remembers. “Gavan was just about to start his Leaving Cert year, Liadh was 14, and Ríona was only five. I will never forget Riona’s reaction as an innocent five-year-old trying to understand what I was telling her. I was thinking, ‘How unfair is this to any child? Not to mind myself.”
Aiveen and Dominic had previously carried on her family’s tradition and spent their summers in Eagle Point with the kids. After Dominic died, Aiveen found it hard to spend time there without her husband. “I needed to take action rather than drown in my sorrows,” she says.
“And a funny series of events led to me buying a little summer retreat in Mountain View, Glengarriff, just a 10-minute drive from where my family and I shared so many memories.
And this felt like a chance to make new ones.”
Mountain View was built as a holiday village in 2006 but when the construction company behind the project collapsed, the estate, including an unfinished leisure centre – built as part of the complex – had ended up in the hands of NAMA. “A man with a vision, Barry, lived close by,” Aiveen explains. “And rather than letting the estate go to ruin, he came up with a plan to get a group of people together – by word of mouth, mind – to buy the houses as part of a consortium. Part of the agreement was that each member of the consortium, as well as purchasing a house, would get a share in the leisure centre.”
In the meantime, Keelin was busy writing her first, as-of-yet unpublished, novel. In her story, the main character, Cassie, opens a Wellness Spa in Bantry and names it ‘The Jewel’.
“Originally in the story, Cassie was going to die in the end,” Keelin says. “But after the heartbreak for everyone in the family over Dominic, I couldn’t bear to have any more sadness – so she lived. And the publisher found the ending ‘too predictable and convenient!’
But I couldn’t kill her.” Meanwhile, ‘The Jewel’ had been conceived.
Aiveen continues: “So after a few years, the consortium decided that it would be a shame to leave the leisure centre empty. It would eventually fall into ruin and that would be to the detriment of the whole estate, so it was decided that we try to sell it. But there was no interest. After all, the building would need a lot of investment to get it up and running.
“I was sitting with my youngest, Ríona, one afternoon, and she piped up, ‘Why don’t you buy it, Mum?’ I laughed at first but then I thought, ‘You’re a genius, Rí!’
Aiveen ran the idea by Keelin and they agreed to go do it together. It has been as much an adventure for the sisters as it has been a joint business venture.
“I had been to meditation retreats in the past but with no luxury”, Keelin explains, “and I had been to luxury accommodation with no wellness aspect. We wanted to develop something that offered luxury accommodation in beautiful West Cork, but while maintaining that wellness aspect. We have created somewhere where guests can relax in our stunning outdoor spa, a place in which they can reconnect with themselves and with nature.”
The name they came up with after much debate and deliberation – ‘The Jewel’, of course!
It is no longer an idea on a page, but an extension of Aiveen and Keelin’s family legacy in a part of West Cork which means the world to them.
Oh, and it will soon be coming to your TV screens.
“We’ll be on ‘At Your Service’ with Francis and John Brennan on RTÉ around September time,” Aiveen says. “So we’ll see you then, if not sooner!”