A History of the Lucan Spa Hotel

The Lucan Spa Hotel has a long history. The site first became a health resort in 1758 when an iron spa was discovered at Chapel Hill (at the bottom of the steps leading to Sarsfield Park from the Main Road). Thousands came to use the facilities of the spa and to test the terapeutic qualities of the spring.

In 1795, the Old Hotel (now the Lucan County Bar) was built incorporating a ballroom built some time earlier. To the South of the Lucan Spa Hotel lay The Crescent (Beside Lucan County Bar). This was a terrace of Georgian houses which were also built around this time to house all the holidaymakers who came to the Lucan Spa, which at that time rivalled such resorts as Tunbridge Wells and Leamington Spa in England. These houses are marked on a map from 1816 but are thought to have been built much earlier than that.

This Old Spa Hotel was a fashionable meeting point throughout the 18th Century, in whose surroundings the prosperous pillars of society then rested and entertained themselves with high social activities such as fox hunting with the Kildare and Meath Hunt.

At the end of the 19th Century, witht he coming of trams and trains, the Lucan Spa went from strength to strength. The Irish Builders, on the 1st September 1891, reported that a new hotel was to be built on the site, where it still stands today. The Lucan County Bar served as the Restaurant for the Hotel, while the residents stayed in the Hotel.

The building was supplied with water pumped at high pressure from the river Liffey, while spring water for drinking purposes and rainwater for washing were also used.

The Spa remained popular into the 1900's but with the invention of the motor vehicle people looked further afield for their entertainment and the Lucan Spa lost it's appeal.

In 1958, Mr. Frank Colgan Senior bought the hotel from the Duggan Family. The Colgan Family still own and run the hotel today. In 1963, the Family bought a private residence from the Harty Family in Chapelizod and had it converted into the West County Hotel in the 1980's.

In 1977, a serious fire destroyed the Lucan Spa Hotel which led to the construction of the Earl Bistro and Bar, the Limerick Room and the new wing of bedrooms.