Most people know John Brennan from At Your Service, the hit RTE show where he and his brother Francis swooped into struggling hotels and hospitality businesses across Ireland to help turn things around. But while that chapter may be winding down, Brennan is far from slowing up. His focus now is firmly on Dromquinna, a stunning estate on the shores of Kenmare Bay in Kerry, and the vision he has been quietly building there for the past decade is starting to come to life in a serious way.
Dromquinna Manor has been in the Brennan family for years, but John has spent the last ten years working on something much bigger than a hotel project. He wants to turn the grounds into a world-class garden destination, the kind of place that draws visitors from across Ireland and beyond purely for the experience of being there, walking the land, and connecting with something genuinely special.
The estate itself is already beautiful. Sitting right on Kenmare Bay with views that would stop you in your tracks, it has the kind of natural setting that most garden designers could only dream of working with. But Brennan has not been content to just let nature do the work. He has been investing heavily in developing the gardens, bringing in expertise, planting with purpose, and thinking long term about what Dromquinna could become over the next generation.
For Brennan, this is deeply personal. He has spoken about how the land at Dromquinna means something far beyond business to him. There is a connection to place, to Kerry, and to the idea of creating something that will outlast any television series or hotel turnaround. Gardens take time in a way that most businesses simply do not, and that slow, patient approach seems to suit him at this stage of his career.
The plan is to develop Dromquinna into a destination where the gardens are the main attraction, supported by the hospitality offering already on site. Think less corporate hotel, more immersive estate experience where guests come to wander, to breathe, and to genuinely engage with an extraordinary landscape that has been carefully shaped over years.
Ireland has a strong tradition of great garden tourism, with places like Powerscourt, Killarney House, and the gardens of West Cork drawing significant visitor numbers every year. Kerry itself is already one of the most visited counties in the country, and Brennan is clearly betting that there is real appetite for a premium garden experience in the region that goes beyond what is currently on offer.
What makes the Dromquinna project interesting is the combination of the natural setting and the deliberate, long-term thinking behind it. This is not a quick renovation or a rebrand. Brennan has been at this for ten years already and talks about it in terms of decades still to come. The planting decisions being made now are ones that will mature and evolve long into the future.
He has also been open about the challenges. Developing gardens at this scale takes serious investment, serious patience, and a willingness to accept that results do not come overnight. There are seasons that disappoint, plans that need rethinking, and the constant reality that you are working with living things that do not always cooperate with your schedule.
But from everything Brennan has shared about the project, the setbacks have only deepened his commitment rather than shaken it. If anything, the slow build seems to be part of what he loves about it. After years in the fast-moving world of hospitality consultancy and television, there is something grounding about a project that simply cannot be rushed.
For visitors to Kerry, Dromquinna is already worth knowing about. The manor offers accommodation and the setting alone makes it a memorable stop. But the bigger story is what is being built there over time, a garden destination with genuine ambition that could eventually sit among the finest in the country.
John Brennan’s next great act, it turns out, was already well underway before most people even noticed he had started it.