Coastal, based in Chicago, is a full-service hotel management company specializing in the operation of upscale resorts, sophisticated inns and quality business hotels.

According to Helmut Horn, president of Coastal Hotel Group, Barnsley Inn & Golf Resort will be complemented by the company�s other high-end, high profile hotels and resorts.

�We are extremely proud to add Barnsley Inn & Golf Resort to our collection of properties.  Managing one-of-a-kind hotels is our specialty.  Specifically, we pursue properties in areas that can�t be duplicated anywhere else in the world and stand alone in their history and beauty.  This project definitely fits those parameters,�  Horn said.

Other Coastal Hotel Group hotels include the Salish Lodge & Spa in Snoqualmie, Wash., Westward Look Resort in Tucson, Ariz., The Bishop�s Lodge in Santa Fe, N.M., and Harvest Inn in St. Helena, Calif., the heart of Napa Valley�s wine country.

Resort offers full-range of amenities

Located 65 miles north of Atlanta and approximately ten miles from I-75, Barnsley Inn & Golf Resort is adjacent to Barnsley Gardens, the historic Godfrey Barnsley home in Bartow County, Georgia.

Barnsley Inn & Golf Resort is a high-end, 1300-acre resort and retreat with 70 guest suites contained within 29 one-, two- and four-bedroom cottages.  The architecture, landscape and interiors were inspired by the writings of Andrew Jackson Downing, an eighteenth-century architect specializing in the design of country houses and the original designer of the Washington Mall and The White House grounds.  All units are part of a walkable village and have woodburining fireplaces, 12-foot ceilings, hardwood floors, honor bars, book cabinets, king and queen four-posted and sleigh beds, armoire, ceiling fans, ball and claw foot cast iron tubs, separate shower enclosure, water closet and pedestal sinks.

Recreational facilities include an 18-hole Jim Fazio-designed championship golf course and country club.  There are more than five miles of hiking trails, fly-fishing lakes, swimming pools are tennis courts. There is also a full-service spa, offering a variety of body treatments.
Meeting spaces include an outdoor amphitheater, a centrally-located pavilion, two village greens and an open town square.  There is also an on-site wedding chapel.

The resort's food & beverage operations include The Rice House, world-class restaurant serving innovative interpretations of Southern classics, a golf course club house restaurant and a German beer garden with a bonfire pit.  Gourmet-style picnic lunches will be available for dining on the grounds of this vast retreat.

An on-site gift shop is housed in an 1830's-style log cabin and features heirloom and antique plants.  The other retail outlet, the Red House Gift Shop, carries variety of logo items and collectibles.

The adjacent Barnsley Gardens home includes a manor home, museum, formal parterre English Boxwood Gardens, 150 species of heirloom roses, bog pond, oriental pond and the largest private collection of conifers in the Southeast.

Barnsley's legacy: from cotton merchant to German prince

In 1840, the British cotton merchant, Godfrey Barnsley, began planning for intricate gardens and a stately 26-room mansion in Northwest Georgia for his ill wife Julia.  It was his dream to build one of the grand manors of the South for Julia.  She died four years later before the project was entirely finished.  Initially named the Woodlands, the estate was later known as Barnsley Gardens. During the Civil War, Union troops ransacked the house, killed livestock and removed silver fixtures. 

Over the next 150 years, the Barnsley's estate suffered even more hardships � from a tornado to murder, after one great-grandson shot and killed his brother.  Thousands of acres were sold off.   By the late 1980s, the house and gardens were in ruin.  In 1988, German Prince Hubertus Fugger, a banking and timber baron whose family rose to prominence during the Holy Roman Empire, bought the property for $1.5 million.  He invested another $3.5 million into restoring the historic grounds and opening the home and gardens to visitors.  In 1997, the property was closed to begin development of Barnsley Inn & Golf Resort. 

�With this project, we look forward to establishing its position in the region as the singular true luxury resort in North Georgia, providing exquisite accommodations and a world-class food and beverage operation � all offered with a strong dash of Southern hospitality, � Horn said.
 

For more information about Coastal Hotel Group, write or call Coastal Hotel Group, 211 East Ontario, Suite 400, Chicago, IL  60611, (312) 988-9888 or visit the Web site at coastalhotel.com.