Laoghaire

Theresa..DH and I had wonderful weather during our 3 nights on Achill. If you go there on your next trip, stay at The Bervie BandB. Excellent, friendly hosts, and right on the beach. One day we drove up to Ceide' Fields, and the other, we drove the Atlantic Drive and to The Deserted Village. We took the rocky side road to the left of the cemetery, and almost didn't get back--very narrow and rocky. Wonderful place to let one's imagination wander.

Keep the journey report coming!!

Helen

Angela

I am really enjoying this trip report, mainly as you are covering a lot of my favourite places (Westport, Dublin, Ashford Castle), the place I spend my weekends in (Portstewart, North Coast area) and also my home town (Portadown)!!

I also appreciate the time and effort you have put into this report, thank you.

Angela

tmac_ct

Day 9:
After another lovely breakfast at Boffin Lodge, we packed up and headed out towards Ashford Castle (524 euro per night, http://www.ashford.ie). It wasn’t a long trip (only about 40 km), so we tried to find some spots to stop along the way. We stumbled upon Ballintober Abbey, which was originally constructed at some point in the 1200’s. They have held weekly masses for 750 continuous years! Even during the 1800’s when the roof had fallen in, the monks continued to hold the masses. It’s a beautiful spot and has been almost fully restored. I would highly recommend a visit if you’re in the area.

We continued towards Cong and arrived at the main gates rather early, about 11:00 am. From the moment we crossed through those main gates, our stay there was magical. It was beautiful, bright, sunny day and the golf course looked very appealing to J as drove through it towards the castle. We were welcomed by name by the valet (guard from the front gate must have radioed ahead), and he offered to take our bags and store them until our room was ready. He introduced us to the front desk attendant, who sat us down to walk us through the map of the grounds and the amenities available. J wanted to golf, and I was very interested in doing the falconry class. We were then brought to the drawing room for some complimentary tea and coffee (note: this is the only time tea & coffee is complimentary, the rest of the time you have to pay).

Initial observations on the castle: It is beautifully situated between the lake and the river. The interior seems like it should be a museum - it is very well preserved and very luxurious. All of the Ashford staff are exceedingly polite and willing to do anything to make sure you have an incredible stay. Despite the fact we arrived very early (we wanted to make the most of our one night there!), they had housekeeping prioritize the cleaning of our room and we were able to check in to our room by noon. All of the ‘cheap’ rooms were fully booked when I was looking to make reservations, so we ended up with a deluxe room. It was on the top floor with a queen bed, sitting area, an enormous bathroom and large windows overlooking the river. One other great feature – the rooms have US style electrical plugs in addition to the Irish style plugs. I had forgotten the adapter for my camera charger, so this was a very welcome find! Brooks had adapters available so I had fully charged both batteries then, but was trying to conserve battery power the rest of the trip. We had just finished exploring the room when there was a knock on the door – it was a waiter bringing 2 glasses of complimentary champagne. The front desk attendant had them sent up when she heard it was our honeymoon

We explored the castle a bit – it’s actually smaller than I thought it was. I was thinking that it was an enormous place with hundreds of rooms. It is quite large, but there are only 80 rooms and it didn’t feel at all like a large impersonal hotel. I felt like most of the staff learned our names within the first 3 hours we were there! The spa area was very nice – I wish I had thought ahead and brought my bathing suit, but I didn’t think I’d be doing any swimming in Ireland. I peeked into some of the other rooms, and I am glad we ended up with a large room. The “basic” rooms seemed a little cramped (if you look at the pictures, our room was enormous! Definitely felt like an oasis).

After we walked around the castle for a bit, we went back down to the front desk to book the falconry for the next day and reservations for dinner. We didn’t think we had brought fancy enough clothes for the main dining room, so we opted to just head over to Cullen’s Cottage for dinner. This is a newly opened restaurant on the grounds of the castle, and it quickly became our favorite. J wanted to golf that afternoon, and my plan was to walk around the grounds taking pictures. We found out that there are no greens fees for guests, however J hadn’t brought his clubs, and it was 50 euros to rent clubs and shoes. It was an additional 15 euros for 3 golf balls. Word of advice – if you don’t bring clubs, at least bring your own golf balls! We went to Cullens to grab a bite to eat before we left on our separate activities. I had the best scone of the entire trip at Cullens (I had one in the main castle the next day, and it wasn’t nearly as good), and we also split a salad and a wrap sandwich.

I left to explore the gardens, which I was a little disappointed with. I had envisioned gardens filled with beautiful flowers, but there weren’t actually many flowers. Lots of beautifully landscaped grass, trees and fountains, but not all that many flowers. The fascinating part was how all of the walled gardens connected to each other through little arched passageways. The views across the lake are also breathtaking – it would probably be worth it to take one of the cruises on the lake, but we didn’t have enough time while we were there. It was starting to get very warm, so I headed back to the castle to relax in the drawing room. This was also one of the few places that I was able to get real, unsweetened iced tea.

I went back up to the room and discovered that they had delivered the bottle of wine and cheese platter that I had pre-ordered as a surprise for J. I somehow managed to wait until J returned from golfing before diving into the cheese. J finally returned and reported that it was a great course (caveat – he did not golf any where else while we were in Ireland, he was just comparing to the courses around where we live), but it had taken him longer than usual since he spent more time tracking down errant golf balls since he didn’t want to have to go buy more. It was a great bottle of wine – a Spanish cabernet/tempranillo blend, and they also provided an excellent cheese selection.

We showered and dressed for dinner and headed across the bridge to Cullen’s, where we enjoyed an excellent meal. I was very impressed with the quality of the food at Cullen’s and would highly recommend it as an alternative to the main dining room. The food isn’t as “fancy” but the atmosphere is more relaxed and comfortable. While there are times when J and I enjoy the posh restaurants, sometimes you just want something a little more casual. We went back to the castle for a drink in the cocktail lounge, then headed downstairs to the Dungeon Bar where there was live entertainment. The singer/guitarist was very good, and we enjoyed the music for a little bit before getting drowsy and heading back upstairs.

Random side note: the shower in our room at Ashford was absolutely phenomenal. It was one of those “rainforest” shower heads that you stand directly underneath, and an incredible amount of water came out of it. I did not want to get out!

Odd side note from the day: our stay at Ashford coincided with the Galway Races, which we had not heard of up until that point. Apparently, a number of the horse owners were staying at Ashford, and were taking helicopters back and forth. There seemed to be non-stop helicopters flying in and out both days we were there. Wasn’t too bad in the afternoon, but they started up somewhat early the next morning...

Day 10:
We enjoyed a lazy morning in our oasis before packing up and heading down for breakfast. Our falconry lesson was scheduled for 11:00 am, and since check-out was at noon, we needed to check out ahead of time. We scheduled the 90 minute hawk walk, which cost 170 euro for both of us (85 euro each). The lesson started off at the main falconry building, where our guide introduced us to all of the birds (most of them are actually Harris Hawks) and gave a general overview (how to tell males from females, what they typically eat, their normal behavior, etc). We were given an unexpected demonstration of their behavior when a cat appeared on the wall and the hawks all started screeching. The screeching continued until another staff member was able to apprehend the cat and take it away. Our guide explained their strict feeding routines and constant weighing – the birds must be weighed before being taken out on walks, because if they are too heavy (which means they have eaten too much and are too full), they won’t respond to the commands and just stay up in the trees. The amazing thing is, all of the hawks weighed less than 2 pounds! They are much much lighter than they look.

We received our gloves and then each held our hawks for the first time. My bird was Skellig, J’s was Liffey (all the birds had geographical Irish names). We had to hold tight onto the leather guide straps on their legs to ensure they didn’t fly away too soon and that they became accustomed to us. After we were all set, we headed out the gates of the school and began our walk around the grounds. Our guide showed us how to “launch” the birds and we each successfully sent them in the right directions. To get them to come back, she put a little “treat” on each of our gloves, and we had to hold out our arms for a landing platform. As a warning to those who may be squeamish, the “treat” consisted of bits and pieces of a freshly killed chick. These pieces were very small, so you couldn’t really tell what it was. We continued our walk, pausing periodically to ensure the hawks were still following us. If we couldn’t see them, we’d put out a treat and call them back.

After we returned to the falconry school, it was time for our surprise treat – Dingle, the owl. After walking around with the hawks for awhile, Dingle seemed enormously heavy, though he was only about 4 pounds. Again, for the squeamish, owls need a bit more of a treat, so Dingle’s treats consisted of chick heads and chick feet. Neither J nor I are particularly squeamish, but I felt like this was something they should have warned people of first!

After returning from our falconry lesson, we had one final lunch at Cullens before departing. Next stop was Doolin. I had seen so many mixed reviews about Doolin and it was the one spot on our itinerary that I was most unsure about. However, it does serve as a great base for trips to the Aran Islands, and it is in close proximity to the Cliffs of Moher. I had booked reservations at Cullinans (45 euros per person per night, http://www.cullinansdoolin.com), and it was very easy to find. This ended up being the one room on the trip that I was disappointed with. It was ok, but definitely not up to the same standard we had found at the other B&B’s on our trip. We were in one of the front rooms, just at the top of the stairs. The room was quite small, and the window faced the street. This turned out to be a problem when there was a large group leaving the restaurant late that night. It was too warm to sleep with the window closed, so we had the window open and it felt like the group of people was right in our room. The bed was actually quite comfortable, but the noise from outside was bothersome. We had wanted to eat at the restaurant that night, but they were already fully booked, so we booked a reservation for the next night.

We went to check out the main town area, and couldn’t believe how crowded everything was. There were swarms of people everywhere. The roads were made even more difficult to drive through by the number of people walking on them. They’re barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass normally, but all the people made it especially challenging. We ended up just driving right through the town and not bothering to stop – seemed like too much of a hassle and there were just so many people. We continued down to the harbor area, where we walked around for a bit and made reservations on the Jack B for a trip to the Aran Islands the next day.

Since Cullinan’s was fully booked for dinner, we had to find somewhere else to eat. There is a new little strip mall right across the street from Cullinan’s with a hotel, visitor’s center and a couple restaurants. We tried Fitzpatrick’s pub which was on the corner. There was a sign indicating that there would be traditional music and dancing that night, so we decided to go for dinner and stake out a spot for the music later on. The food there was actually quite good (not spectacular, but good for pub food), however the service was atrocious. I’m not sure if it was because the place hasn’t been open very long and the servers aren’t experience yet, but it was the worst service we’ve had in a very long time. Everything was just incredibly disorganized and it was nearly impossible to get the attention of any of the servers. I think this was the first night they actually had musicians and dancers, so that was also a little disorganized, but the musicians were actually quite good. I’m glad we were there early for a table – the place became incredibly packed. We finally decided we had had enough (we couldn’t even get someone to bring us more drinks), so our next mission was to get the bill. After an eternity, they finally brought us the bill, only they had mischarged us. No matter how much I tried to explain it to the waitress, she just did not understand (the price they charged us on the bill for our dessert was different than the price on the menu). I finally gave up trying to explain and we left (I reduced the tip by the amount we were overcharged). I would avoid this place at peak times – they don’t seem to be able to handle a crowd. However, the food was actually good and hopefully their service will improve with time.

Day 11:
We woke up and had a delicious breakfast at Cullinan’s. I will join the crowd that raves about the honey-lemon pancakes there – they are a must if you stay at Cullinan’s! J had an omelet and said his was also quite good.

We headed down to the harbor and were looking forward to the trip over to Inisheer. We went up to the counter for the Jack B, only to find out that he had cancelled all trips for the day. Though the weather was currently fine, there was a gale force wind warning for early afternoon and he didn’t want to risk not being able to get people back from the island. We re-booked for the next morning and headed back to Cullinan’s to figure out an alternative plan. Since Doolin isn’t that far away from Bunratty, we decided to head down to Bunratty Folk Park and environs (this was our plan for the following day, but we figured we’d just switch the two days).

Upon reaching Bunratty Folk Park, we knew it was going to be a headache. I was debating whether or not to go – I had read so many mixed reviews. If it hadn’t been so crowded, I would actually recommend it. I found both the Castle and the Folk Park to be interesting. They’ve done a good job of recreating the various dwellings, and it was nice to see a castle that wasn’t in ruins. The only problem with the Castle was the stairwells. The spiral staircases are very steep and narrow, and not all of them are ‘one-way’. There were multiple traffic jams trying to get up and down the stairs. I was also aggravated at the number of people disobeying the ‘no flash photography’ rule, particularly given the number of tapestries and paintings. My sister is a museum curator, so she may have rubbed off on me a little too much, but I wish people would understand that flashes do cause real damage to tapestries, fabrics, and paints.

We enjoyed our walk around the village, but had finally had enough of the crowds. We set off to find somewhere to stop for lunch and ended up in the town of Quin. We had an excellent lunch at the pub in the middle of town (can’t remember the name of it, but it’s not a large town – this was right in the middle of the town center, across from Quin Abbey).

Next stop was Knappogue Castle. I would highly recommend this castle if you want to have a tour of a ‘real’ castle, but don’t want to deal with crowds. Knappogue is beautifully situated (much nicer area than Bunratty) and fully restored. It had similar artifacts as Bunratty, the only difference was that there was almost nobody there. The quirky feature of Knappogue is that one of the owners in the late 19th century decided to add on a formal drawing room and dining room. If you look through my pictures you can see them both. It’s very incongruous with the rest of the castle!

Not too far away was Craggaunowen, which was supposed to be a recreation of life in iron-age Ireland. This is also located in a beautiful area and was an interesting spot. I’m not sure when this opened and if they’re still working on it, but it seems like a work in process. Some of the points of interest are very well done (the Crannog and Ring Fort in particular), but others are just a waste of time. There is also a restored castle here. I wouldn’t highly recommend this place, but if you’re in the area looking for something to do, and particularly if it’s a nice day out, it’s worth a stop. I think admission was 8 euros per person.

We had enjoyed beautiful weather the whole day and were puzzled that there didn’t appear to be any large storms. However, as we drove back up to Doolin, the weather became progressively worse. We were thinking of stopping at the Cliffs of Moher, but the weather was bad and the parking lot looked insanely crowded, so we decided to leave that until the next day. We just went straight back to Cullinan’s and showered and changed for dinner.

Dinner at Cullinan’s was exceptional. J considered it to be better than our dinner at Castle Murray, but I had a hard time deciding which I liked better. J had the lamb – it was a perfect medium rare and incredibly tender. I had a chicken dish served with amazing mustard mashed potatoes. The chicken was juicy and delicious. I forget what my appetizer was – I remember it being good, but not exceptional. Following our entrees (and a couple glasses of wine), we had a cheese plate with an incredible variety of cheeses, and eventually finished up with some ice cream. They really have an impressive menu and I would highly recommend making a reservation if you’re planning a trip through Doolin.

While we were eating dinner, the storm was definitely in full force. There was an incredible amount of wind and rain. We were watching all of the tents pitched in the field across the river and just waiting for them to blow away. Numerous people stopped by Cullinan’s looking for a room in order to get out of the storm, but they were all booked up and it sounded like every place in town was fully booked.

Day 12:
We ate yet another delicious breakfast at Cullinan’s (I had the honey-lemon pancakes again – couldn’t resist!) and Carol very nicely called down to the Jack B to check on whether the boats were running, which they were not. She said that when she looked out first thing that morning, it looked like several of the tents in the field didn’t seem to have made it through the night.

We headed down to the harbor anyways to check out the waves. I couldn’t believe how large they were and how rough the sea was. One of the boat companies was actually running, and there was a long line of people waiting to get on, but I don’t think you could have paid me to go out on a boat with seas like that. We stayed to watch the waves for awhile and to try to figure out an alternate plan. We had already done everything we had previously planned for this day on the day before, and weren’t sure what else we wanted to do. We packed up, checked out of Cullinan’s and decided to head to Ennis.

First stop on the way was the Clare Jam Shop right outside Doolin. We had passed signs the previous day and I really wanted to stop – I love jam! It’s a cute little shop and we bought quite a variety of jams. We haven’t tried them all yet, but the cherry jam we opened first is excellent!

Next was the Cliffs of Moher. I’m not sure what to say about them. I think the Visitor’s Center and walls (and too many tour buses) have ruined it. You can’t get close to the edge, and you can’t get any good pictures because of the walls. We followed the crowd over the wall and past the point where it says “Visitors are not permitted” and that was the only place we could really get a good view of the cliffs. I understand the safety issues given the number of people that visit, but the new set-up really seems to have ruined the overall experience. I much preferred the Slieve League cliffs up in County Donegal.

We continued on and made our way to Ennis. Ennis is a great old town to walk around in. It is a bit of a maze, with all sorts of little streets and alleys, but that just made it fun to explore. We had some lunch, continued walking, and then stopped at a great little bakery for some chocolate filled croissants and cookies.

Our final B&B for the trip was Bunratty Lodge (37.50 euros per person per night, http://www.bunrattylodge.com). Mary, the hostess, is so sweet and has a beautiful place. The room was old, but clean and well kept. We didn’t really feel up to going to see anything else, so we spent the remainder of the afternoon repacking all of bags to make sure everything would fit. We typically pack an empty duffel bag in our suitcase on the way over, and fill that up with dirty laundry for the way back. Leaves more room for souvenirs in our suitcases, and also keeps the dirty clothes separated from the clean clothes.

We ventured into the town of Sixmilebridge for dinner, assuming that we would find a pub or something. All we could find was an Indian restaurant located above an Irish pub (this pub did not serve food, just beer). The food was actually good, it just seemed odd that our final meal in Ireland was Indian food

Since we had to leave early the next morning for our flight, she prepared a tray of fresh bread, jams and fruits and brought it to us that night.

Day 13:
Woke up very early, packed the car, and headed to Shannon airport. We dropped off our rental car (no extra charges!) and checked in, only to find out that it was delayed by 2 hours.

Flight finally left and we made it back to JFK with no problems.

Coming up: Final observations and overall impressions of Ireland.

Shadow

Great report!! As I said in an earlier post I was anxious to see what you said about Ashford Castle. My trip is a custom tour we arranged with CIE tours so it will be interesting how they handle a tour group. We are all so looking foward to Ashford.
Did you have the breakast in the main castle? If so, did you like it?

I have been buying jam from the Clare Jam factory for several years...you can't find it just anyhere but my mother lives in Co. Roscommon and there is a little store there that sells it. I bring jars back as gifts and my friends tell me "I am out and need more"...everyone loves it!! So, I have arranged for my tour group to stop there...I hope they ship!!
Again, thanks for a great trip report..looking foward to your impressions of Ireland.
Shadow

olesouthernbelle

I know nothing of ireland - well very little, anyways. One day I'd like to take my son & his wife for a visit, as he has always had a definite interest in castles.

He has asked me to start researching for this future trip.

Your report was very interesting! Thank you for posting such helpful information & including the links, as well as the captions on your lovely pictures!

SiobhanP

Lovely Trip and you did a lot! The only decent bagels in Dublin are at Its a bagel in the epicurian food hall that an American woman opened and they inport H&H bagels from NYC. I buy them and freeze them for my weekend bagel. Its as good as we get here in Dublin. As for service Its unfortunate but what you experienced 8is not uncommon here and even some more up market places can be apalling. I cannot tell you how often tyhe bill has been wrong and I ALWAYS check. My mother I felt was a bit of a target as it happened to her quite a bit. It makes me wonder at times. Glad you enjoyed Ireland

hester

I really enjoyed your report! It sounds like you had a wonderful honeymoon.
We are going to Ireland next summer, I went last summer with my sister and I didn't care for Doolin. This time I am going with my husband and I am going to give Doolin another try, thanks to all the positive trip reports like yours I have read. I remember seeing that Jam shop although we didn't stop, this time I will make sure we do.