bunratty
 

still looking for bunratty accomodations...tour operator said that bunratty lodge would not take reservation for next june yet???? I also suggested maybe bunratty woods.

bunratty castle hotel booked

he suggested bunratty manor hotel, says is walking distance to bunratty castle.

also, where is the creamery pub? is it also near the caslte?

any comments

Bed and Breakfast-Ashgrove House- is in Bunratty Co. Clare.

They are open all year. Very good feed back on tripadvisor. We are staying there in January.

I would check with Bunratty Lodge direct for reservations.

The 'The Creamery' is situated on Bunratty Fair green in the heart of Bunratty right beside the castle. I've never been there.

[email protected] ((b))

Chip -
I stayed at Bunratty Woods B&B my first night in Ireland. There are several B&B's on Low road which is the road that runs next to Bunratty castle and folk park and the winery - just a little further out. too far to walk but really near by. The B&B was fine - compared to others we stayed in it was "purpose built" not converted - the room was neat and clean, the people very nice. It had a "lodge" feel with wood paneling throughout. I'd try to book with them now anyhow - they are large enough that they do take small bus tours - we were the only room not a bus tour on our one night. There is a large shopping complex directly across the street from Bunratty castle that contains many stores - the creamery is in that complex. We also didn't eat there. NJSally

We have stayed in Ashgrove House (Frank & Sheila Tiernan) and at Park House (Mairead Bateman), both on the Low Road. Park House is huge with lots of pine, very spacious rooms. Ashgrove is smaller, but we found Frank and Sheila to be a hoot. Good luck!

Inishfree is a nice B&B about a half mile down the road from the Bunratty parking lot have stayed there three years in a row on our last night. Creamery and Kathaleen's Pub are across the street from the Castle. Very good food at both. The hotel is nice also but a little on the high side. Have fun

I would definitely contact Mary Browne directly to make a reservation at Bunratty Lodge. I'm sure she accepts reservations in advance. If you are working with a tour operator, does that mean you have vouchers? I'm not 100% sure (but close), but I think Mary does not accept vouchers.

The Creamery is indeed across the street for the castle as does a very respectable job with food. It's in the same area with the woolen mills and the hotel.

Like everyone said, there are loads of B&Bs along the Low Road in Bunratty and I really can't remember any bad reports on them. If Bunratty Lodge doesn't work out and you want to stay in the family, Headly Court is run by Mary's sister or sisetr in law or something like that.

Bill

Welcome to the Banner county. There will be no shortage of good accommodation in the Bunratty area as the links above have informed you about all the B&B houses in the area.
To view the county and what is on offer go and have a look at www.clareguidealive.com and to see what is in the 'store' across the road go to www.blarney.ie
While you are trying to decide where to stay be sure and call to Durty Nellies across from the castle for a drink.
If you are visiting the Castle leave time to walk through the Folk Park and farm on the same grounds. If it is good enough for Mrs Bush it sure is good enough for you and the Russian Presidents wife also took a tour of the place.

Chip, Mary Browne does take reservations in advance for 2006. Contact her directly at [email protected] She does not take vouchers. If you are using vouchers I recommend Headley Court run by Kathleen Browne (Mary's daughter-in-law). Both B&Bs are very nice.

Bunratty should be avoided. It is nothing but the castle and folk parks and a handful of mediocre to poor restaurants surrounded by a bunch of B&B's.

If you do feel the need to stay there, I'd recommend against Bunratty Lodge for 2 reasons. First it is rather sterile. I also found Mary Browne less than charming. Like a lot of B&B hosts, her veneer of codiality is very thin.

Second, it is too far from the castle and restaurants to walk. You would be better off staying closer. I didn't go in, but Bunratty Woods B&B looked good .

Wow,

Imhornet, sorry you had such a bad experience at Bunratty Lodge. Mary was very nice to us when we stayed there last October.

It is true that you have a short drive (I mean, perhaps 3 or 4 minutes) to the castle from Bunratty Lodge, but that is true for virtually every B&B on the low road.

And I will say that you are right that Bunratty is not exactly a destination unto itself. I imagine most folks stay there the last night before flying out the next morning because it is so close to Shannon.

Finally, Bunratty Woods Country House Hotel was fine when we stayed there this past August. I mistakenly thought it would be an easy walk to the castle--not that far, but the low road isn't great for walking.

"It is true that you have a short drive (I mean, perhaps 3 or 4 minutes) to the castle from Bunratty Lodge, but that is true for virtually every B&B on the low road."

Nonsense. Bunratty Woods is maybe a 10 minute walk. Bunratty woods was 25-30 minutes. The basic question is whether you want to go to one of the pubs by the castle for a few pints and have to drive back to the B&B or have short walk. After drinking, walking seems a far better option. I know that walking rather than driving is a difficult concept for many Americans to grasp, but sometime it is a better idea.

Incidentally, I never said that I had a bad experience a Bunratty Lodge. I don't know why people feel compeled to distort what you say if you don't agree with them. I said that it is not very homey and quite sterile - the echo of footsteps in the hall seemed to rattle through the house. As far as Mary Browne is concerned, she wears a good facade, but the cracks show in small ways. I've got nothing major against her or the place, but it just wasn't anything special and requires a long walk or driving drunk. Neither sounds like a good option.

lmhornet,

"As far as Mary Browne is concerned, she wears a good facade, but the cracks show in small ways."

Please elaborate. It is fine to give your opinion but you could damage someone's good reputation by such a comment without backing it up with specifics. I would like to hear your SPECIFIC complaints and/or comments. I would also like to hear from others about Bunratty Lodge and Mary Browne.

I have stayed at Bunratty Lodge several times and do not agree with your comments although you are entitled to them. I found Bunratty Lodge very clean with nice comfortable rooms, a good breakfast and a very nice host with no "facade cracks". She has always been quite pleasant to me.

People have a life outside of doing B&B. Have you ever thought that a host could be ill, have family problems, have just dealt with a very troublesome guest, didn't get much sleep because someone checked in at 2 am, had someone skip out without paying, or multiple other things? How would you do under such circumstances?

I think most B&B hosts do a fantastic job. Look behind your own facade to see how you might be observed by others. I think that analyzing someone like that is a bit unfair given that you have stayed at Bunratty Lodge once and Mary Browne has been in the business for over 25 years. She must be doing something right to be booked most of the time. And that is my opinion.

Just returned from a month of B&B's in Ireland, Scotland and England. Mary Browne's Bunratty Lodge ranks high on our list. Our room was nicely furnished, extremely clean, and the breakfast was very good. We liked the quiet location precisely because it is not on the Low Road where traffic is constant and where we saw walkers nearly run down by motorists. Ms. Browne is kind and extremely professional which we appreciated. For a one or two night stay, we don't expect to become "best friends" with our hostess. If one wants a touchy-feely kind of hostess, perhaps this place isn't right. However, for us, we'll return to her house next time. By the way, she no longer accepts credit cards if that is an issue.

I stayed at the Headley Court -- run by Kathleen Browne, Mary Browne's daughter-in-law. It's just at the end of the Low Road, a short drive to the Castle and Durty Nelly's. Can't say enough about the B&B, especially compared to some others I've stayed in.

Kathleen was very welcoming, and I especially liked the early breakfast hours as compared with others, since I'm an early riser. She has small children that she gets off to school in the morning, and the earlier hours work well with that schedule.

As an earlier writer said, I don't expect to become best buddies with my B&B host, but when it comes to a warm welcome and great accommodations I heartily recommend Headley Court.

We can recommend Rocklands B&B up the road from Bunratty. Very nice place. Daughter Mary of hostess Mary Slattery who works at the Castle gladly picked us up at the Fitzwilliam Hotel and later delivered us to Dury Nellies (and brought us back) for our final dinner in Ireland.
ozarksbill
[email protected]

Followup on Bunratty area lodging:
Rocklands B&B and others found at www.irishbeds.com/bnb/clare/112.html
ozarksbill

To All:
My sister and I stayed at Bunratty Woods our FIRST night in Ireland. I was afraid to drive too far on day 1. It was her husband who greeted us and checked us in. He was very nice and pleasant. I would say the DRIVE was 3-4 minutes. It was raining so we never attempted to walk it. It was Mary, thank God, who asked me our itinerary the next day and said I had set an impossible task for our day (Bunratty to Limerick to Tralee to Dingle to Killarney to Cashel) I had reservations in Cashel that I cancelled and we stopped in Killarney for our second night. I found the B&B to be clean, neat, full of farm antiques. Breakfast was great. Our only complaint was that the shower was anemic (weak) but that wasn't really a big deal. My sister felt Mary was a little cold, but I didn't feel she was and she was very helpful to me. Just goes to show you that even two sisters can see things differently. By the way, there's about 6 B&B's next door and across the street from each other. That means none of them were any closer to Bunratty (well maybe metres closer) Sally

NJSally,

I'm a bit confused. Did you stay at Bunratty Lodge or Bunratty Woods? They are two different places. The fact that you and your sister saw your host completely differently might say a lot for each person's personality instead of the personailty of the host. Perhaps lmhornet is a bit on the cranky side. S/he certainly didn't care to elaborate about the remark s/he made about Mary Browne. A shrink would probably have a field day with all this.

ok, now I guess I'm confused myself. I stayed at Bunratty Woods for sure. My sister did find the owner a little abrupt and I found her most helpful. But we are probably talking about different B&B's so I'll back out. Sally

NJSally,

No need to get out of the discussion at all. I think you added an interesting perspective to the discussion. You showed that the perception we have of our hosts in Ireland is very dependent on our own personalities and expectations. BTW, the name of the owners at Bunratty Woods is Maureen & Paddy O'Donovan.

I liked Bunratty Lodge, especially the heated towel rack in the bathroom.

I love it when people say don't go there because it's too touristy -- I guess that's why people go there. ((a))

Kinda like no one goes to Disney World anymore because it's too crowded. :D ((b))

Budman, I think Bunratty Lodge is one of the warmest B&Bs in Ireland. People always complain that B&Bs turn the heat off at night. Bunratty Lodge has heating units that are on all the time unless you turn them off yourself. I liked the towel racks too.

Agree totally about the "touristy" thing. Tourists go to places that are fabulous and then complain they are touristy and too many people are there. Duh! So maybe they should tour landfills and slums instead and skip Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, Dingle and Killarney.

We had a negative experience at Bunratty Woods in March 2004. We found the woman who ran it to be cold and somewhat rude. When we checked in, we advised her that we had an early flight and would be leaving early the next morning. She insisted we pay her that minute. Not a problem, we had planned to settle the bill that afternoon anyway, but she was very rude about it. My biggest complaint was there was construction going on at the B&B that we weren't not told about in advance. I had confirmed my reservation the week before so they would have known about it (was a renovation as opposed to repairs), so I just thought the proper thing to do was to give us notice and let us decide if we wanted to book somewhere else. But no...

I liked Bunratty itself very much. Touristy, yes, but I really liked the castle and folk park. Mac's pub inside the folk park offered probably the best fish & chips of the trip. I'm probably a little nostalgic since that was where I had my last pint of Guinness in Ireland.

We stayed just one night at the Bunratty Lodge in May of 2003. It was our last night and we had a very early flight out of Shannon the next morning, so it was convenient as well.

Mary Browne was delightful to us. The B&B is *very* clean and neat. The room was decorated nicely (last one on the left, at the end of the hallway, a triple). It had very nice beds as well. Mary arranged for an extra early breakfast for us, outside of her normal hours, as our flight schedule demanded an early start. I would highly recommend her place.

We also enjoyed the Bunratty Castle and the dinner theater event there. It was touristy, too be sure, but we were "tourists", so it was fun. A nice, cheerful ending to a great Ireland trip.

Quick drive to Shannon airport, drop off the rental car, and out - easy as pie if you stay at Bunratty.

I'm also looking to book Bunratty Meadows for June of next year. Unfortunately my e-mails have gone unanswered and the phone number on the website is no good. Can someone tell me how to get a hold of them?

Thanks,

Sue

Same thing happened to us when trying to book our favorite B&B in Bunratty area. Unanswered e-mails.

We drove by there on our last trip only to find that their sign was down -- they must have discontinued being a B&B. ((b))

The T&C book lists the email address of Bunratty Meadows as [email protected]

I stayed at Bunratty Meadows last year and for my money I would rather stay at Bunratty Lodge. There was no guest lounge at Meadows, no chair in the bedroom (had to sit on the bed), sparse furnishings, and in the dining room the fireplace was not completed -- just a big hole in the wall. On the plus side: beds were firm & comfortable, it was clean, it was very warm with underfloor heating, nice views over the Shannon River and breakfast was very good.

It depends on what you are looking for.

Thanks IrishEyes, I'll take that under consideration.

Some people have sunny dispositions. Others are rather stormy, and they may wonder why it seems to be cloudy and raining wherever they go...

Well said Mellissa! I think you have your sunny side up. Wish everyone did.